Travel Through Time
by Hope-Hikari
Summary: Sent to the past, the mini big three trio are forced to read the PJO series with heroes they never imagined they would meet. In a chance to spend more time with the more godly side of the family, the three find that maybe, just, maybe, the gods might care more than they let on. Rated T just to be safe. Contains 1 OC. Sorry, but I can't write without her. Temporary hiatus.
1. Prolouge

Light: Hi fanfiction people. I'm Hope-Hikari aka Light since Hikari means Light and and and…

Thalia: *Hits Light on head* Don't worry people. She's alive. She's just a teensy bit nervous to update.

Light: I'm not nervous! Letting people, other than my friends, read my story is just… scary. *mumbles*

Percy: Who's doing the disclaimer?

Nico: This might be the only time we'll actually remember to type this down so enjoy it while you can.

Thalia: Since the authoress is there mumbling to herself about who knows what we're inviting a special guest to do it. She is Teodora Gasperin from the Undrowned Child and the Mourning Emporium by Michelle Lovric.

Teo: Hope-Hikari does not own anyone, except Light and her family which does not include me. She owns what the characters are going to say and before you ask this story was inspired by LiveLaughLoveTogether13's When Future and Past Clash Together. It's a cool story. Read it.

Nico: You're friendlier in the books.

Teo: Have a nice read everyone!

Prologue: A leap into the past

Percy was having a normal demigod day before the orange light came. He had a date with Annabeth. Honestly, he doesn't really see the difference between their relationship. Other than the fact that they were dating that is. They were still best friends just a bit more different. After that he sparred a bit with Clarisse who he grew a bit closer with after the Second Titan War. A few taunts and lots of bruises, for Clarisse not Percy since that's impossible, later, the two almost friends decided to call it a day since it was already sunset. Percy took a quick one hour shower, (which was super quick for him when no one was there to disturb him) before heading off to the amphitheater.

Then the dreaded orange light came. It came without warning in the most horrible shade of orange Percy knew. Tangerine. The light engulfed him and a second later he was falling. At that time only two thoughts ran in his head. 'Oh no Annabeth will kill me.' and 'Why does it have to be tangerine? It could be blue you know!'

Thalia was having the most perfect day. She had just been let off from the hunt for a one month holiday because of her broken ankle (which was now completely healed courtesy of Apollo) and she was spending it with Percy's Japanese/American/British/Greek cousins, the Ichinose's and then at camp staring from the next day. She spent her holiday mainly with Light since her twin Night was packing for camp. Night was running around like crazy. She couldn't stay still for even a single second. Light and her brother, Bright, were watching her very amused.

"Hey Thalia." Light said, "Aren't you gonna pack? I've already done mine."

"Yeah." Thalia said, "I suppose I should pack."

Thalia headed off to the room she was temporarily staying in and as she was about to get her duffel bag. A light engulfed her. And it wasn't any light either it was a hot pink light. Hot pink! That's the colour Thalia detested most. The next thing she knew she was falling from a very very high place. She did the natural thing. She screamed.

"Thalia?" A voice asked.

Nico had an amazing day. His father was proud of him. Persephone promised not to turn him into a flower and the best thing was that he was on his way to camp. His cabin wasn't done yet of course. It's only been a week since the war, but one thing he knew was that it was going to be awesome. It's going to be just as good as Poseidon cabin and definitely better than Zeus cabin. In the meantime he was going to stay at Poseidon cabin. Percy was a great cousin and the twins, who were actually Percy's nieces from his father's side and his aunts from his mother's side, were pretty decent.

Nico's stayed over at their place before. After he passed out for a week at his first try at shadow travelling, he woke up in their house. They were great. They even gave him a room in their mansion. At the end of the war Light pulled him aside and told him that her father wants to adopt him. So, what else can he say? He liked the family and Light, Night and Bright seemed to be reliable and usually undependable siblings. If that was possible.

He said yes. Light smiled brightly and gave him a silver chain with thirteen silver charms. Light told him that they were charms that everyone in their family had. Recently, Nico added a small guitar charm to it. The cool thing was that it turned into a real guitar. After that he lost it. He's searched all over for it but he hasn't found it yet.

A white light enveloped Nico and the next thing he knew he was falling and a screaming girl was next to him. Also falling.

"Thalia?" someone asked.

Wait? Percy?

"Percy?" Nico asked.

"Nico?" the screaming girl –Thalia- asked.

"We're all here?!" Percy said.

"I see light!" Nico randomly yelled.

"Hey yeah! You're right." Thalia confirmed.

Nico and Thalia shared a look, "We're gonna DIE!" they yelled. This didn't help at all.

Percy saw that his cousins were distraught so he summoned as much water vapour as he could and made a fluffy water cushion. They fell into that cushion and it quickly re-evaporated straight after leaving the three cousins on the black and white marble floor.

"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" A voice boomed.

Mortal affairs were great. The world was at peace. No new demigod has been born. Not a single natural disaster was happening. It was perfect, but the gods were _bored. _It was a winter solstice and they weren't even arguing over a single thing.

What strange behavior for the gods.

Suddenly, two voices yelled, "We're gonna DIE!"

The gods looked up to see a strange sight. Three children fell from the ceiling of Olympus. Athena started to wave her hand to summon a cushion from her room to break their fall but to her utter surprise, a water cushion was appearing on the floor where the children were going to fall. She looked at Poseidon who was the only one who could've made it but she saw that he was also shocked.

As soon as Zeus got over his shock he yelled, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

The three children jumped up and bowed in perfect timing with each other. It was only then the gods noticed their strange attire. The oldest boy had sea green eyes and raven black hair streaked with grey. He wore a dark green short sleeved shirt (tee-shirts weren't created yet right?) and a pair of blue trousers of a strange material.

The girl had electric blue eyes and spiky black hair. She wore silver Hunters of Artemis clothing with a black short sleeved shirt that had a picture of a blonde doll with an arrow through her head. Strangely, the words _Death to Barbie _were on it. This led Athena to wonder who or what a Barbie is. She wore a silver circlet around her head like a tiara.

The youngest boy had intense black eyes and messy ebony black hair. He wore a black shirt with dancing black skeletons under a black jacket and a pair of black trousers also made of the same strange material as the first boy. Around one of his fingers was a skull ring.

The oldest boy's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "What do you mean? Don't you know us?"

"Should we?" Poseidon asked.

Once again, a strange thing happened. A box fell out of nowhere right onto the boy's head.

"Ouch!" He yelled, "Why me? Why not them?"

"You're just unlucky cuz." The younger boy told him taking the box, "Hey there's a letter."

He picked a piece of very thin and smooth parchment out. That led Athena to wonder. Since when were parchments that thin, smooth or white?

"It's addressed to us." He informed.

"Then read it dead boy." The girl snapped.

"Fine fine." He said taking a breath.

"_Dear confused (maybe angry) demigods and gods,_

_I have sent these demigods to the past to read a few very important books about a demigod hero. There are five books and you are to read them in the proper order that Percy will tell you. Read them from beginning to end. Twelve years old to sixteen. Heracles, Theseus, Orion and Perseus are to be present in these readings. No maiming or killing is allowed in these readings, especially from Thalia, Zeus and whomever else it may concern. I will send another person from the future to read with you. She shall come by the tenth chapter of the first book at the latest. Time is frozen so don't worry about camp. Remember what I said about maiming. Sorry about the books hitting your head Percy. I was warned there might be a few glitches and I couldn't drop the box of anywhere else._

_Love,_

Mother/Grandmother Rhea

Oh… We're in the past… No wonder everyone is wearing bed sheets. I mean togas."

Zeus nodded, ignoring the mini-Hades's bed sheet comment. Not a single person should go against Rhea. She can be scary when she's angry and if she tells them to do something it must be truly important. "Hermes. Summon the heroes."

"Yes my lord." Hermes said.

A few seconds later four heroes stood before them. "Now introduce yourselves." Zeus commanded.

A muscled boy with deep blue eyes and golden blond hair started. "I am Heracles, son of Zeus and hero of Olympus."

Thalia lunged at him. Percy and Nico held her back. Percy whispered a few well chosen words into her ear and Nico reminded her about Rhea's warning. Then he smirked and whispered, "We can challenge him later on and you can whip him so bad that he'll regret what he did."

After that, a boy who looked similar to him, only with sandy blond hair and sky blue eyes introduced himself, "My name is Perseus, son of Zeus and hero of Olympus."

Another boy, this time with black hair that was a bit long and sea green eyes came next. He held a few scrolls. "My name is Theseus, prince of Athens, son of Poseidon and hero of Olympus."

Someone else who looked a lot like him, only with shorter hair and a quiver filled with arrows and a bow instead of scrolls introduced himself, "I am Orion, son of Poseidon and hero of Olympus."

The gods looked at the future demigods.

The oldest boy started, "Percy Jackson. Son of Poseidon and savior of Olympus."

The girl came next, "Thalia Grace. Daughter of Zeus and lieutenant of Artemis." She glared pointedly at Heracles, which got Zeus wondering why his daughter doesn't quite like his favourite son, to the point that she'll readily attack him.

Finally, the youngest boy finished off with a, "I'm Nico di Angelo, son of Hades and unofficial king of the ghosts."

"Take a seat." Athena said waving her arm to summon two couches.

Heracles, Theseus and Perseus sat in one and Nico, Percy, Thalia and Orion sat in one. Nico poked Orion a bit. "Wow! They're alive. We really are in the past."

Percy and Thalia face palmed themselves. Orion and Theseus stared at the young demigod. "What? Iris prank called me once and since then I learned that you can never be too sure with gods so I had to check."

The two past demigods mentioned above started laughing. This was going to be one heck of a book reading session.

"Where is the book we are to read?" Heracles asked.

"Hmm… Let's see…" Percy mused. "Titan's curse, Last Olympian… Ahh… Here it is Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Wait what we're reading books about me?"

Thalia and Nico hi-fived as they laughed at Percy's horrified face.

Thalia: And cut.

Nico: You're not the author.

Thalia: I'm enjoying my moment of piece while I still can.

Percy: We hope you enjoy the story.

Teo: Is the author sane?

Light: I'M PERFECTLY SANE! DON'T HATE MY STORY!

Nico: She'll be fine by the next chapter. Have a nice day.

Percy: Look forward to the next chapter.

Thalia: It's a reading one.


	2. Chapter 1 Evil Teachers

Light: YAY! PEOPLE LIKE MY STORY! I'M SOOO HAPPY!

Thalia: Oh great. She's hyper again.

Light: I'm soooooooooooo glad that I decided to do disclaimers for every chapter~~~~~ Someone call the guest!

Percy: And so today's guest is… umm… err… oh right. I hate dyslexia, it's Sophie from the Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable.

Sophie: Okay so umm… Percy Jackson and co. does not belong to Hope-Hikari. I don't belong to her. My book does not belong to her. Bye.

Nico: That was fast. Enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 1 Evil Teachers

"I want to read!" Nico said taking the book from Percy.

**Chapter 1 : I accidentally vaporise my pre-algebra teacher.**

Hermes's eyes widened, "I'm liking you already."

"Hey wait." Nico said, "Where's Lady Hestia?"

"I'm right here." Hestia replied from the hearth.

"Oh good. I thought you weren't present."

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Not many people do kelp head." Thalia informed him.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

Thalia's eyes widened, she hid under her father's throne. "Hit the deck. Kelp head's giving advice."

"My advice isn't that bad."

"You told Travis to tie himself up as a mummy so he could finally wrap enough bravery to confess to Katie. He ended up scaring her off instead"

Theseus stared at his half-brother. How can someone give such horrible advice?

**close this book right now.**

Nico shut the book. Thalia leaned over, smacked him, took the book and read.

**Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Not going to work." Orion told Percy.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"Check." Percy said.

**It's scary.**

"Check." Perseus said.

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Check, but we'd know all about that now wouldn't we?" Thalia said.

Poseidon paled considerably. What? Just because he was a god doesn't mean he doesn't care about his children.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

"We envy you too." Nico told no one in particular.

Heracles looked away. Why oh why does he have to be related to these immature people?

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn me." Nico told him.

"Well, sorry I was too busy protecting you from a manticore." Percy said sarcastically.

"Do I want to know?" Hades asked. What? Did you think Poseidon was the only kind one?

"Nope." Nico said happily.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Thals~" Percy whined, "You aren't supposed to steal my name~~~"

Artemis rolled her eyes. _Boys._

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

"Really?" Orion asked, "You don't look twelve to me."

"I'm sixteen." Percy complained, "This book happened four years ago."

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"I believe so." Athena said.

"She doesn't change does she?" Percy asked Nico and Thalia.

"Oh. She is going to hate that you're... You know..." Nico said.

Percy paled. Uh oh.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"You agree with me/her?" Athena and Theseus asked.

"Percy. If someone calls you troubled you aren't supposed to agree." Poseidon said.

"Aren't all demigods troubled?" Percy asked.

Mutters of 'Good point,' echoed around the room.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it,**

"Short and miserable?" Perseus muttered. He decided that it was going to get him a while to like this demigod. He doesn't really like people who are much too overly dramatic. Like Theseus, Heracles and Orion have learned, it takes Perseus a while to trust and accept people, but once someone earns his trust they'll never lose it.

"That's what it said." Heracles said disdainfully.

**but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids**

"You just called yourself mental." Theseus said with disbelief.

"I can make him mental." Dionysus said.

"You're paying attention?" Nico asked with disbelief.

"Of course not. Who did you think I was? Adella?"

Dionysus just got attacked for butchering up the name of the goddess of wisdom. That wasn't very wise of him.

"Mr. D doesn't change either." Percy pointed out.

**and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"That sounds wonderful." Athena said.

"Yes it does," Demeter agreed.

"Smart head." Poseidon muttered, he raised his voice, "That sounds horrible."

**I know-it sounds like torture. **

Demeter and Athena huffed.

Artemis rolled her eyes again.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

"Boring. I need some action!" Ares complained.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. **

"I don't think he'd like that description." Thalia informed him.

"Sounds very familiar." Heracles muttered.

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons,**

"Why roman?" Nico asked.

"What's roman?" Athena asked.

Percy and Thalia shrugged.

"It could have been Greek." Percy told Nico, "But I could have mistaken it as roman, and Lady Athena. You'll know in a couple of centuries.

**so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"How could you sleep while studying?!" Athena yelled.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"I thought we agreed that Percy equals to trouble." Thalia said.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

"Typical." Perseus said, he's already gotten a quick and almost accurate guess on Percy's character.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

"Nice." Hermes commented.

"What were you doing with a canon?" Hephaetus asked.

"I wanted to see if it worked." Percy told them sheepishly.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

"Good one." Orion said, "Swimming with sharks is always good exercise."

"It's fun too." Percy agreed.

Artemis stared. She thought Orion was a different from other boys. Hopefully, he doesn't act too much like Apollo.

**And the time before that… Well, you get the idea.**

"Yes. Unfortunately, we do get the idea." Nico told the book solemnly.

Thalia punched him. "Stop talking to the book.'

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Never works." Hermes told him.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"EEW!" Aphrodite yelled, "Who would eat such a horrible thing like peanut butter and ketchup."

"I thought peanut butter wasn't invented yet." Nico revealed.

"Why?" Orion asked, "It's only the easiest thing to carry around when hunting."

"When hunting, shouldn't you be hunting for food?" Thalia asked.

"I eat things like peanut butter sandwiches sometimes too you know." Orion said. Who knew peanut butter was that ancient?

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. **

"Grover would so love that description Perce." Thalia said sarcastically.

"It used to be true." Percy said.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"That is called blowing your cover. If you want to be a successful liar, you must not do that." Hermes told them.

The sons of Poseidon plus Thalia and Nico nodded solemnly. Heracles sighed and Perseus smiled slightly. 'Why am I related to these people?' Heracles thought. Perseus instead thought, 'What amusing cousins I have.'

Artemis hit her head against her throne when she saw Apollo nodding as well.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death**

"What?!" Poseidon yelled.

"Dad. Teachers aren't allowed to kill students in the future." Percy told him. Orion and Theseus got a teensy bit jealous that Poseidon cares so much for Percy even though he hasn't known him for that long yet, but they wiped it away quickly. Anyone could see that people would care about Percy even if they have just met him. He's just the kind of person people naturally grew to like. Even Perseus might like him, given a little time, that is.

**by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Oh." Poseidon said.

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"YES! ACTION!" Ares yelled.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"Me too." Orion said, well duh... We can guess that much. "But I won't like it anymore if it's in my hair"

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

"Nooo..." Ares whined, "Why'd you stop the action?"

Aphrodite wondered why she was dating this thing.

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. **

"When we get back to the future, we'll do that." Thalia said.

"I wanna come too." Nico cheered.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"I have a feeling I won't like this." Poseidon said.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Percy." Nico told his cousin solemnly, "The gods are older than that. I mean look at them. Don't they look withered and old and ancient to you?"

"Yeah... I mean... Wait what?! I do not look old and withered!" Apollo yelled. His reaction caused Artemis to bang her head on her throne due to her twin's stupidness. It even made Zeus forget to blast Nico off Olympus.

Hades sent his son a look that said 'stop trying to kill yourself'.

Nico sent him a look that said 'Don't worry. We do this all the time'.

That got Hades to worry.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"Why would she do that? He wants to learn!" Theseus said, angrily glaring at the book.

"Favouritism, maybe." Athena told him.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Does she look like Ares?" Hephaetus asked.

"She's scarier and a bit easier to beat." Percy answered.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. **

"No. That's Nico." Thalia told the book.

"HEY!" Nico and Hades yelled.

"The girl is right." Demeter said.

Nico pouted childishly as his father glared at the goddess of Agriculture.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"The kid is obviously right," Hera said angrily, she was not happy about reading books with these demigods. Especially since three of them are her husband's.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele,**

"I did not need to know that." Artemis said gritting her teeth.

**and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

"_Thank you._" Artemis said, clearly annoyed, but still gritting her teeth about having to thank a boy.

Apollo and Hermes shared a look. They didn't think they'd live to see Artemis thank a boy.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course." Orion said.

"Does that happen to you two too?" Percy asked.

"A lot." Theseus answered.

"Maybe it's a son of Poseidon thing." Thalia suggested.

"Brother does tend to blurt things out a lot." Hestia agreed.

Poseidon didn't know whether to glare at his favourite sister or smile warmly at his sons. He settled for both which made him look all creepy.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

"I hate it when that happens." Nico said.

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

The gods who experienced this groaned.

"**Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because …"**

"**Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"Really Percy?" Thalia asked at the same time Athena muttered, "Typical sea spawn."

"We are so much more cooler and super powerful. He's just jealous of us, that is why he ate his godly children." Apollo said trying to save Percy from his father's fury. It worked.

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"**Titan," I corrected myself. "And … he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

"I've never understood how someone could do that. I mean that's his son right. He should at least know how to differentiate him from a rock. Unless... Lord Zeus looks like a rock." Nico said, looking at Zeus who was fuming, "I'll just go with the fact that Kronos isn't the brightest crayon in the box."

Poseidon looked at Zeus, "I think brother was the one who looked like a rock."

"I agree." Hades said.

Zeus shot some lightning at each of them.

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"At least you weren't in there!" Demeter and Hera yelled at the book.

"**-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"One of the greatest wars in history and he shortens it that far..." Athena said.

"That's what I call talent." Apollo said.

**Some snickers from the group.**

"Percy, those people are the stupid ones. Ignore them." Theseus said.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

Heracles glared at the book and by default (since it was in her hands) Thalia. Thalia glared at him as if saying 'if you dare touch one hair on my cousin's head. I'll murder you'.

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted." Nico muttered.

"And rightly so." Heracles said. He thought most mortals were stupid. Only demigods and those of a higher station than them are to be thought well of, and sometimes those demigods are better off ignored.

"**Busted," Grover muttered.**

"I think like Grover? I think like a-a-a-" Nico asked. Shocked as Percy slapped his hand over the mumbling boys lips so he wouldn't ruin the story.

Thalia laughed a bit. Light was right, Nico's reactions are hilarious.

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

'Horse ears.' The future demigods thought.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. **

"I hate it when that happens." Thalia said.

"**Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, **

"Oh oh oh!" Nico said raising his hand. "Where did Uncle Zeus get that idea from?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Zeus said turning red.

"Great. Now I'm even more curious."

**which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. **

"Wouldn't that give him indigestion?" Perseus asked.

"Are you saying we taste horrible?" Hera snapped at her step son.

"No my lady." Perseus said, turning red.

"Actually that's what I think." Nico said. Hera and the other gods who were in that situation glared at him.

"Well it's true. Apollo bit himself once and confirmed that gods tasted horrible." Nico said.

"Now why would you do that." Hestia asked her nephew.

"I don't know Aunt Hestia. It's in the future." Apollo answered.

"How does he act in the future? He can't be that stupid. Tell me!" Artemis yelled. Sadly, she was ignored.

**The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld.**

"I hate it down there." Nico informed them.

"You've been down there?" Percy asked, worried.

"Persephone was going to turn me into a daisy. I had to hide. I didn't actually go down there. I just hid behind a rock that was very close to the entrance. Not too close though, I didn't want to get sucked in and,"

"Shut up Death Breath. You're giving me a headache." Thalia commented.

**On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Oh because we're all feeling so hungry after hearing how everyone got barfed out of grandfather." Ares said.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"What does doofuses mean?" Artemis asked.

"It means someone who acts stupid and immature... Like Hermes and Apollo." Thalia explained.

"I don't act too much like Hermes." Apollo complained.

"You don't?" Percy asked, "Well… You do in the future."

"I ask again, what does Apollo act like in the future?" Artemis asked.

"Childish, immature, prankster." Percy answered.

"Player, annoying, and disrespectful." Thalia informed.

"He keeps bugging Light about becoming a muse even if she made her point clear by punching his nose hard that she didn't want to become one." Nico told them, "I think she's the first ever demigod who ever sent Apollo to a hospital. She called the ambulance once after Apollo 'accidentally' got hit with by a bookrack she clumsily 'bumped' into in a library."

"Speaking of Light I noticed that she's super happy-go-lucky and cheerful." Thalia said.

"She won't tell me why she's forever cheery and bubbly and 10-year-old Nico-ish…" Percy pouted.

"Who's Light?" Aphrodite asked.

The super cousins looked at each other and Nico said, "Whatever it is you're thinking, that's probably not it. If she comes up again we'll tell you."

"Lady Artemis. Are you trying to destroy your throne?" Thalia asked, eyeing the cracks in her lady's throne.

"I'm trying not to…"

"It's not working."

"… I know…"

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

"You can see the future?" Apollo asked.

The super cousins looked at him strangely.

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"That was creepy." Nico said.

"Why?" Theseus asked.

"That's what I thought too."

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"**About the Titans?"**

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"You're a demigod. It should be easy to answer once you know." Orion answered. Everyone looked at him to see that he was eating a peanut butter sandwich. "Before you ask, I skipped lunch. I was really hungry."

"**Oh."**

"**What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

"That's a lot of pressure to put on a student." Poseidon said.

"I agree." Athena said.

"It was for the best and who are you two and what have you done with dad and Lady Athena?" Percy asked.

"Are you alright Percy? We might fight a lot but there are some instances when we agree on things." Poseidon said.

"Not in the future." The super cousins informed them.

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

"Understatement of the millennia." Thalia commented. "Why is it so quiet anyway?"

The futures looked around to see Ares and Dionysus sleeping, Athena, Poseidon, Artemis and Hades playing pinochle, Zeus polishing his master bolt, Hera was glaring at Apollo and Hermes who were drawing on Ares's face with who knows what, Aphrodite was putting on makeup, Hephaetus tinkered with his thing-a-majigs, Demeter ate some wheat, Hestia was keeping the napping three demigods in the other cushion warm, and Orion was giving Nico and Percy pointers on archery. Like those two could actually do that right.

"HEY!" Thalia yelled, "LISTEN WHEN SOMEONE IS READING!"

She was so loud she woke up Theseus, Perseus and Heracles, all of whom glared at her, and also Dionysus and Ares who pointed a sword at Apollo who then ran away to his safe comfortable throne.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"Typical Grover." Thalia said.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

"What a good friend you are cuz."

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Aww..." Demeter and Hera cooed.

"The boy obviously cares for his mother. Why can't you all be like that?" Hera snapped at her children.

"You're not our real mother." Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes and Dionysus reminded her.

"I don't have a mother." Aphrodite pointed out.

Ares shrugged.

"You threw me off Mount Olympus." Hephaetus said.

"I said I was sorry."

Thalia continued reading.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, **

**making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped **

**her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"Can we go and beat her up?" Nico asked.

"Chi- I mean Mr. C won't like it." Percy reminded him.

"We're gonna go anyway." Thalia informed him.

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

Thalia blinked, "If I have a description as horrible as this. I'll murder you."

"I'm sure you're description isn't horrible Thalia," Nico said, "I'm more worried about Ann- hers."

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"Not the first thing I'd say but okay." Theseus said.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

"**-the water-"**

"**-like it grabbed her-"**

"Yes. Yes." Nico said waving his hand dismissively, "We all know children of Poseidon get super cool but sometimes freaky water powers. On with the show."

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"**

"She probably was." Hera commented, she was starting to like this boy.

"**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Guessing your punishment is the worst thing a person could do." Hermes said shaking his head mournfully.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"Percy. It's his job." Thalia reminded him.

Percy and Nico blushed.

"Nico did you think the same thing Percy did when Grover..."

"Bianca did too." Nico pouted, "Don't just go putting all the blame on me."

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"**I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

"**But-"**

"**You-will-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"**It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"**Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. **

"Like it's any worse than mine." Ares boasted.

Percy glared at him and he looked as scared as the Stolls were when Night held them at gunpoint that one summer, literally, her weapon is a gun with celestial bronze bullets.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

"It seems she forgot to move at human speed." Athena commented.

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Percy..." Orion said slowly, as if talking to a baby, "We have already established that Mrs. Dodds is a monster. Repeat after me. She. Is. A. Monster."

"I know. I know. Geez... "

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

"Idiot." Athena said.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"It would've been easier if that was the case."

"Nothing is easy and why are you becoming the prey instead of the hunter? If you want to live it should be the other way around." Orion said. Artemis's view on him lifted a bit. A bit.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Never is." Nico said.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Not a good thing." Perseus said. He wanted to know what happened next.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"Maybe it is..." Apollo said cheekily. Guess who just got punched by the goddess of the hunt.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"Whoa..." Nico said.

"What is wrong son?" Hades asked.

"Percy did the safe thing..." Thalia muttered.

"Do you think the world is ending?" Nico asked.

"If the Stolls swear not to eavesdrop anymore then yes it is."

"Why do I even bother?" Hades asked himself. It's not like people actually answer his questions.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

"It's not pure evil actually. It's more the if-you-cross-me-I'll-torture-you evil." Nico commented.

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Yes Percy." Perseus said, "She will hurt you."

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"For once, I can't blame you." Thalia and Nico chorused.

"I'd say thanks but even I can tell that you were insulting me." The past demigods were shocked that didn't sound like an insult but thinking back it was probably an insult.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. **

"I was unsure about you at first, but I do believe you are the coolest demigod I know so far." Hermes said.

"It's alright Lord Hermes; in the future you have your own children to be proud of." Percy said. Hermes smiled happily. He's always wanted to have a child to be proud of.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Before any of you ask me how that is worse, I'll have you know that I have a disease that makes the words fly out of the page. Literally, and I have read the book now." Percy said just in time to save himself from Theseus and Athena's rant about how wonderful books are.

"**Well?" she demanded.**

"**Ma'am, I don't…"**

"**Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY SON WHO DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HE'S A DEMIGOD YET?!" Poseidon yelled at Hades.

"Dad... I'm still alive..." Percy said.

"Oh... Right... Never mind..."

"YES! SOME ACTION!" Ares yelled. He just got boiled in hot water.

**Then things got even stranger.**

"How can it get stranger?" Demeter demanded.

"If you're Percy, anything can get stranger." Thalia told her.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"**What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"What ho?" Nico asked.

"Yes demigod. What ho." Zeus confirmed.

"But in the future no one says that anymore."

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"That sword sounds strangely familiar." Heracles said.

The futures looked at him with looks that said, 'Are you stupid?', 'Dude, even I could figure that out' and Thalia's just made it clear she was annoyed that Heracles was even alive and she wasn't beating the pulp out of him.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp." Ares snickered. Four huge chunks of ice just flew at him from every single water god and demigod in the room.

Perseus stared. How could the demigods do that to a god?

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"I suddenly imagined Alecto killing honey with her whip." Nico said.

"I know right." Apollo agreed.

"How am I related to him?" Artemis asked.

"Sometimes I ask myself that question too and I'm not even related to him." Aphrodite agreed.

The goddess of the hunt and the goddess of love agreeing. Wasn't that supposed to be impossible?

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"How is that natural?" Hephaetus asked.

"When you're being attacked and you have a sword its natural," Athena explained.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic mushrooms." Thalia snickered.

"It happened once. Not a pretty sight I tell you. Dad was running over the throne room chasing Hermes who accidentally gave him Hecate's magic mushrooms instead of his amanita phalloides. Good thing I don't eat mushrooms dad ordered. All of them are poisonous and that magic mushroom could have blown me up."

"I didn't think they were real..." Percy said.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Poseidon, Orion, Theseus and Nico chorused.

**I said, "Who?"**

"Oh the horror!" Nico yelled, "I think like the fish people!"

Athena agreed with Nico, thinking like the fish people, except Theseus who was actually smart, is a horrible thing.

"**Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

"She probably thought you were crazy." Athena commented.

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

Hermes stared. What a horrible liar.

"**Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"He wasn't using it to write." Nico told the book.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"**Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"He is a good liar." Hermes said.

"So who's reading next?" Thalia asked.

"Pass it here," Theseus requested.

Thalia threw the book and Theseus jumped on the arm rest to catch it.

**Chapter 2 Three old ladies knit the socks of death.**

Light: That was fun to write. Now I have news. I won't be updating till 11/11/12 at the very latest. I have *shudders* exams coming up soon and I need to s… s… st…

Thalia: She needs to study.

Nico&Percy: *Gasps loudly* I thought you settled for last minute studying.

Light: I really need to pull up my marks. So await my update.

Nico: Note to readers, the author is horrible at meeting deadlines.

Percy: You might not want to get your hopes up.

Light: *throws pineapples at both of them* I hate you two.

Thalia: She's getting her arrows. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

P&N: *runs away*

Light: Hey Thalia. Wanna join the hunt?

Thalia: Thought you'd never ask.

Sophie: … I think the boys are going to be safe. So since the author and Thalia are busy, I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell you something serious.

…

…

…

No pineapples were harmed in the making of this chapter.


	3. Chapter 2 Deadly Socks

Light: YES YES YES! THE EXAMS ARE OVER! YAY!

Thalia: Oh good what are your marks?

Light: I got 78.5% for Physics.

Percy: Please no more talking about school.

Light: Easy for you to say you don't have more lessons to go to. Yeah. I still have to study, and I'm not very keen on learning 'bout the respiratory system.

Nico: When'd you get back anyway?

Light: 35 minutes ago. The guest for this chapter is Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter.

Luna: Oh hello everyone. Isn't it just a lovely day?

Light: Luna, the disclaimer…

Luna: Oh yes that's what I'm here for isn't it? But why would you need a disclaimer anyway? You're neither American nor English and you're fourteen. You couldn't possiblt own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.

Light: Thank you Luna, for that lovely disclaimer, enjoy the chapter and Thalia. SEE I CAN MAKE A DEADLINE!

Nico: Does anyone else realize that the names at the start of the chapter have a lot o L's today.

Percy: No one cares.

Chapter 2 Deadly socks

**Chapter 2 Three old ladies knit the socks of death**

"That's not right." Nico said, "I've met death before and he doesn't wear socks."

Thalia hit him upside the head. "He wasn't talking about Thanatos you idiot."

"Oh."

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. **

**The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman **

"Question!" Aphrodite said, "Was she pretty?"

"She was like forty-eight, I don't know!" Percy yelled completely exasperated.

**whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"Not gonna work." Theseus told him.

"I know that now. Why do people keep telling me these things again?" Percy said.

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

"There's an almost there I see…" Orion said.

**Almost.**

"I bet two drachmas that it's Grover." Thalia said.

"Deal." Orion said.

"The faith you have in your friend is horrible." Hera said.

"Not true." Nico said, "We're good friends with Grover so we would at least know that much about him. That's also the reason that I know Orion is making a sucker bet right now."

**But Grover couldn't fool me. **

"Ha!" Thalia said, triumphantly, "Pay up Orion."

Artemis shook her head. She didn't quite agree to gambling but her favourite lieutenant and the person she's come to think of as another annoying brother looked quite happy and care free. Orion looked happier than he has all those other times when he's with the hunt. The thought got Artemis wondering what happened to Zoe. She's a good lieutenant and wherever she is in the future she hoped that Zoe would be fine and happy, even if she fell in *shudders* love.

Ugh. That word was too hard to even think.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't****exist****. But I knew he was lying.**

"That much is obvious." Hermes scoffed.

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"Ya think?" Nico said sarcastically.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"She was your first monster. That happens to everyone." Perseus said. All the demigods, even Heracles nodded in agreement. The gods who have children lowered their heads in shame of what they put their children through.

**The freak****weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the****unusual****number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"Why are father and Lord Poseidon fighting?" Perseus asked.

"In the future they fight a lot." Thalia answered.

"_Mother Rhea always liked you better._" Percy mocked.

"_Air disasters are greater than sea disasters._" Nico followed.

"It's annoying." The super cousins chorused.

Said gods blushed heavily.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"What are Ds and Fs?" Athena asked. She hated not knowing.

"Grading for tests. A is very good. B is fine. C is acceptable and so on. F is fail." Nico told her.

Athena looked horrified at the information. How could someone get such horrible grades? Theseus didn't look much different. He knew children of Poseidon weren't always knowledgeable but a _fail?_

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. **

Ares looked horrified. "How could you hit a girl? Even if she is horribly and utterly unbearable you can't hit a girl!"

The super cousins looked horrified. They yelled, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH ARES!?"

"Nothing. I am Ares…"

"Oh." Thalia said, skeptically.

"Sure…" Nico said, in the same tone.

"They were verbal fights not physical." Percy said, a bit suspiciously.

Ares wondered what he was like in the future and Hephaetus chuckled at the futures antics.

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Typical." Thalia commented.

"Not anymore." Percy childishly sang out.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll,**

"Hey." Orion commented, "Erase the two l's and you get Nico. Nicoll, Nico, Nicole."

"Nicole is a girl's name, and Nicoll sounds like it!" Nico yelled insulted.

"Pipe down Nicoll. I have a hangover right now." Dionysus said.

"When doesn't he?" Apollo stage whispered to Hermes.

**asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for****spelling****tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"Only you Perce." Nico said patting Percy's back.

"Whazzat word mean?" Apollo asked.

"A drunkard." Percy said.

"Like D here?" Hermes asked.

"Exactly."

The wine god would have probably attacked the two of them if he wasn't groaning while holding his head from his hangover.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick. **

"I'd be too." Nico confessed remembering Sally's blue cookies.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, **

"Aww…" Demeter and Hera cooed.

**even if I had to go to****public****school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

For some reason Poseidon felt a surge of anger at that sentence.

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the****distance****, the smell of pine trees. **

Thalia looked disturbed at that, as did Percy.

The two looked at each other.

"That last part never existed." Percy said. Thalia shook her head in agreement. They looked at Nico.

"I'll never even mention it if you two don't use your powers on me for no good reason."

"Deal."

The past people looked at this exchange with curiosity.

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Aww…" Demeter cooed.

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

"Still sounds familiar…" Heracles muttered.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. **

"You want to impress your teacher…" Demeter cooed.

**I hadn't****forgotten****what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Good." Perseus said, "Then you'll be more likely to live longer."

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. **

"You threw a book!?" Athena asked. Her voice raised an octave at every word.

"My cousin threw a book once. She loves books but the ending upsetted her so much. She threw it across the room crying. Then she ran out of the room. While I made sure I didn't get a concussion. How could you throw a hardcover book at someone's head?" Percy said, ignoring Athena.

Theseus shook his head. You don't just ignore the goddess of wisdom. It isn't done.

Thalia tapped her knee in thought, she asked, "Was that book My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult?"

Percy nodded.

"That book is depressing. The ending was so sad… It was so unfair what happened at the end."

"You read?" Nico asked in disbelief.

"Phoebe lent me hers. It was in Greek."

**Words had started swimming off****the page****, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. **

"That's it?" Nico asked. Percy nodded. "Lucky. My dyslexia makes the letters dance ballet."

"Mine does the tango." Thalia said.

"I don't have this strange disease." Theseus said.

"I can't read because if I do the words start a war." Orion said.

"That's nothing." Perseus said, "Mine try to eat each other up."

Everyone looked at Perseus like he was crazy. Heracles sighed. Even Perseus was joining the future's frivolousness.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"I meant the spelling of Chiron and Charon not the real people or beings themselves. That's easy. I still don't get Polydictes and Polydeuces and Latin doesn't exist yet." Percy said quickly seeing the two braniacs glare at him.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"Not pleasant." Nico said shivering.

For fear of an answer Hades didn't ask.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **

"Creepy how close to the mark you were there." Nico said.

The gods looked at him in confusion.

**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

"That's a bit too much pressure don't you think?" Theseus asked.

The past heroes agreed. The super cousins looked at each other and Thalia said, "Nah."

"Not at all." Nico said.

"It was for the best anyway." Percy agreed.

The past characters looked at the super cousins like they were crazy.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

"Good." Athena said huffily. Looks like she was still a bit put out by the fact he actually threw it.

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. **

"You can do that?" Nico asked.

Thalia looked at him in shock. "You didn't know that."

"I was dropped in the Lethe remember?"

"Oh."

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to****leave****Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

Demeter cooed again. Seriously what is with this goddess?

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

"Very descriptive there aren't you Perce?" Orion joked.

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

"Why would he be worried?" Hestia asked.

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Sure you aren't." Hermes said.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Good point." That was Apollo. Wow he sounded intelligent.

**I inched closer.**

"… **alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

"**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"A lot more." Thalia agreed.

Percy stuck his tongue out at her as prove of his matureness.

"**But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "**

"**Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"Hey. I like being not too ignorant."

"**Sir, he saw her… ."**

"**His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to****convince****him of that."**

"Apparently not." Poseidon said.

"**Sir, I … I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"Is he still blaming himself for that? He is isn't he? He is going to regret that." Thalia said.

No one bothered to tell her she just had a conversation with herself, but Heracles asked, "Blame himself for what?"

"It should be in the book but if not you four are going to have to listen to me and Lady Artemis to find out."

The past characters looked at her like she was crazy but she casually took out a lightning bolt and tied it up into a lasso. Uh oh. She was serious.

"What's with the lasso?" Nico asked.

"I was trying to make a leash."

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

"That's a hard job." Perseus sympathized, "I pity him."

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"No! Never reveal you're hiding spot!"

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Good. Remove all evidence."

Artemis sent an arrow at Hermes. "Don't teach the demigods things like that!"

"Too late." Thalia said, holding up a book titled 'Sneaking About 101' by Hermes, "I do find it strange my lady, that you would tell Hermes not to teach us that when in the future, you were the one who gave me this."

Apollo stared in disbelief. So did Artemis. Artemis never likes letting her hunters read anything that a boy made. Much less a book by Hermes.

Thalia looked at the twin gods and shrugged like it was an everyday occurrence, which it obviously wasn't.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

The gods wondered who this Mr. Brunner really was.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, **

'It couldn't be. Could it?' Heracles thought.

**like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of****the glass****, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn …"**

"**Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"How could he remind him?!" Nico asked, horrified.

"Don't you have a Greek Mythology Test soon?" Thalia reminded him.

"**Don't remind me."**

"I agree with Grover."

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

"How long was it?" Apollo asked.

"One minute." Percy answered.

"Hmmm…. That is long!"

Artemis face palmed. Idiot.

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"Which we know he didn't do." Demeter pointed out.

"**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

"**You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"**Just… tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"**Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's … it's for the best."**

"Whoa he's horrible at speeches." Nico said.

"He once told me that to catch the Minotaur by the tail I had to hit it with a pine tree." Thalia confessed.

"That's a bit insensitive." Percy pointed out.

The past people wondered what is it with the futures with pine trees.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"I wanna kill her!" Nico said happily. Weird.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

"**I mean …" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"**Right," I said, trembling.**

"**No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say … you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

"Yes Percy you aren't normal." Orion said patting him on the back.

"Yeah. You're related to fish face. There's no chance of being normal."

"Thanks Lady Athena." Theseus said sarcastically.

"It's okay guys. Just remember. Demigods aren't normal, and that's good." Nico said jumping.

Demeter looked at him curiously. "Are you sure corpse guy here is your dad? You seem a bit too cheery for a son of Hades."

"Yup I'm sure. Persephone hates me and I have a room in the underworld."

"I think its influence from his adopted sister." Percy confessed.

"She is pretty cheery." Thalia admitted.

"**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

"**Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day****of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

"That's not how you pack!" Aphrodite yelled. "You should treat clothes more carefully."

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

Zeus looked insulted. "Nobodies?"

"Didn't know yet."

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"That's rude." Hera commented.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"No never confess!"

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

"**Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"Oh not much." Nico said, "Just the whole conversation.

**He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

"**Grover-"**

"**And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"**

"He's a horrible liar." Hermes said.

"He once told Bianca and I he was coincidentally at all the same classes we were in because he couldn't hear well and he needed us to tell him what the teacher said when we knew he could hear through locked doors." Nico said in one single breath.

"That's a terrible lie." Thalia agreed.

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

"We have a landline?" Thalia asked.

"Yes. Yes we do." Nico answered.

"**What's Half-"**

"**Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"**Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."**

"**Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

"Aww…." Guess who said that. Ding ding ding. We have a winner. It was Demeter.

"**Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

"Mmm… Fruit. Healthy and Tasty. Perfect for a snack." Demeter advertised.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. **

"That sounds good." Nico said.

"Yes. Yes it does." Perseus agreed.

**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

"Why blue?" Apollo asked, "It should be yellow or gold."

Thalia sent a couple of lightning bolts at him and Percy doused him with water.

"Blue is the greatest colour ever!" Percy yelled.

"Especially electric blue!" Thalia yelled.

"No ocean blue!"

"ELECTRIC!"

"OCEAN!"

Nico got a few skeletons to put them back on their seats.

Demeter was shocked. Looks like Nico really was a son of Hades. Did she forget he happily admitted that he was going to kill someone not so long ago?

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

"WHAT THE UNDERWORLD! PERCY WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US!" Nico yelled.

Hades paled. His son seemed really fond of this demigod. He can't die just yet.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"PERCY! HOW COULD YOU HIDE THIS!" Thalia yelled. She found out.

So did most of the other gods. They paled as well. How was he still alive?

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

"**Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

"**Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"The fates." Perseus whispered.

"You can't be serious Percy!" Orion yelled.

"And you're alive?" Heracles said, shocked. No one evaded the fates.

Theseus quickly continued reading.

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"That's not funny!" Apollo snapped. The fates are serious business.

"**Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

"**We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"Please follow. Please follow. Please follow." Thalia and Nico chanted.

"**What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"**Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"Next time listen to your friend." Perseus said. Percy can't die yet; Perseus has just started taking a liking to him.

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. **

Poseidon looked like he was going to faint. For comfort he brought all three of his sons on his lap and hugged them tight.

"AAHHH! FATHER I CAN'T BREATH!" Orion yelled

"Dad, are you trying to kill me!?" Percy yelled.

"I can't read!" Theseus yelled.

Nico and Thalia looked at Theseus in a way that suggested they thought he was crazy. His dad was more or less killing him and he was worried about reading? Seriously? Of all things? Reading? The gods and other two past demigods were shocked at Poseidon's actions. All except for Hestia who knew that her brother truly cared for all his children.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"I once asked them that and they didn't answer." Nico said pouting, effectively breaking the tension.

"Are you that stupid?" Thalia asked. Artemis nodded in agreement.

Nico didn't answer for a few seconds. "Charon dared me to."

"And you actually listened to him!?"

Was this kid for real? Asking the fates something like that could be really suicidal.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

"**Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

Heracles felt sorry for Percy even though he still didn't like him.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

"**Grover?"**

"**Yeah?"**

"**What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything." Athena answered, the colour coming back into her face.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. **

"A million times more horrible." Hades said.

**He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

"Like this?" Hephaetus asked. Percy nodded. "It's to ward off evil. Usually very effective.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

"**Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"**What last time?"**

"Me!" Thalia yelled happily, breaking the tension accumulating in the room.

"That isn't really something to be proud about." Percy said.

Thalia shrugged. "So?"

"**Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"**Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"**Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"Two drachmas that Percy breaks that promise." Thalia said.

"I want to keep my money so no." Nico said.

"**Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

"**Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"Yep. But it's not me." Percy said sadly.

"You could have told us that earlier you KELP HEAD!" Thalia yelled throwing her electric leash at Percy.

"Ouch!"

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"How about poppies?" Thalia suggested.

"Or lilies?" Nico asked.

"I'm thinking anemones." Orion joked.

"I think water lilies are better." Theseus said joining in.

"Hmmm… I would go for daffodils." Perseus said.

"I'd go for blue roses. It's quite fitting since it means attaining the impossible." A familiar voice said.

The gods and demigods looked behind Poseidon's throne. A young girl was perched on top of it.

She smiled and said, "Hey guys."

Light: And cut. No that isn't Annabeth. She'll come into the story a bit later on. That's… Nobody important. Find out in the next chapter.

Thalia: I found a draft of the next chapter. Let's read it.

Light: NOOO!

Percy and Nico: *holds Light back* Well? What are you waiting for?

Thalia: _Around her wrist was a silver charm bracelet containing 14 silver charms and she also wore a pair of silver earrings._

"_Do you know anything of divination? Seeing the future and things like that."_

_When Nico was done cooking the eggs, she wrapped up a sufficient amount of rice in each egg. One for each person._

Luna: Could the character be an OC? I heard that Light once said she couldn't think of a good story without an OC.

Percy: Where'd you hear that?

Luna: The Nargles told me. Oh, the author thanks each and every one of you for your kind reviews and yes she swears on Merlin's Underwear – sorry, the River Styx to update.

Nico: How'd you understand her?

Light: *mumbles from under her gag*

Thalia: Did you have to gag her? Tying her to the chair was bad enough.

Percy: She bit me.

The author now believes the characters to be author abusers.

Nico: Well, you probably shouldn't have made all of us close like family in the future.

Luna: I never thought that siblings fought this much.


	4. Chapter 3 The Young Sorceress

Light: Okay so I just got reported for MST. Whatever that is, and I decided that since this chapter is not a reading chapter it should be fine right? And let me just ask, if I change the story a bit to fit in my OC's would I still be reported for MST? By the story I mean the story of the book they are reading, not the parts that I wrote. If it's still going to be reported fine I stop but let me just tell you I'm already halfway done with the next chapter. And even if I do stop I'll update that part first before informing you. I was going to add Annabeth, Jason, and Bianca soon, and Zoe at some point, but since I apparently might have to stop this story soon, you all won't have that surprise I was cooking up or the quest or the movie nights. I don't own PJO.

Chapter 3 The Young Sorceress

The girl perched on top of Poseidon's throne had a beautiful heart shaped face. Her light green eyes were large and her long light brown hair was plaited down her back. She wore a light blue skirt that ended under her knees and a white three quarter sleeved jacket over a sleeveless silver shirt. She also wore silver flats. Around her wrist was a silver charm bracelet containing 14 silver charms and she also wore a pair of silver earrings. The one on her right ear was shaped like a wing and the one on her left was a water drop.

She smiled and said, "Hey guys."

"Who are you and what are you doing here!?" Zeus yelled.

"I'm Light. Light Ichinose. Granddaughter of Poseidon. Legacy of Hecate. Cousin of Percy Jackson from both sides of the family. Adopted sister to Nico di Angelo. Oh, and a sorceress-in-training." She added as an afterthought. "I do not know what I am doing here since I just popped out here while I was in the middle of streaking my hair light blue."

"You're dying your hair?" Percy asked.

"I was bored okay. Some genius decided to freeze time, and I am not affected by time stops so far I have managed to rearrange the whole library, perfect a part for a ballet recital I'm hoping to be part of next autumn, made the most horrible sugar statues of everyone and I mean everyone at camp, cleaned up my room, Nico's and Thalia's and I've also painted my nails. See?" She held up her nails which were dark blue with white letters over it. On one hand was her name; on the other was the word 'happy'. "So… What exactly are we doing in the past?"

"How'd you-" Nico was interrupted by a song.

_(Two Voices from Barbie and The Diamond Castle)_

'_If I could wish for one thing_

_I'd take the smile that you bring'_

"Sorry. That's mine." Light confessed, slipping a little box out of her pocket.

"Hello?"

"Hello dear."

"Great Grandma Rhea?"

"Yes. It's me."

"Why are you…? Oh… What are we doing in the past?"

"Reading books about Percy."

"And why am I here?"

"I need a little favour from you."

"Okay. What is it?"

"How good are you with your magic?"

"Pretty good for my age and level of training."

"What is that?" Theseus asked Percy as his half-niece talked into the weird box.

"That is a phone. It's a communication device."

"Who's she talking to?"

"I'd assume Grandmother Rhea maybe."

"Okay."

Light snapped her phone shut and said, "Right then. Great Grandma Rhea told me what we were doing and as much as I'd love to continue reading, I'm guessing you're all super hungry by now. Especially since the dinner bells are going to ring in three, two, one."

Right on cue, deep rumbles came from almost everyone's stomachs. "How'd you know?" Nico asked.

"Oh nothing special. Just a little something called deductive reasoning."

Light grew a pair of swan wings on her back and flew down in front of the future demigods.

"Oh and I found something." She dug into her pocket and took out three things.

"Percy. Your pen."

"How'd you? Never mind. The question should be how did I lose it?"

"The go back to your pocket thing doesn't work across time."

"Thalia. This was on your table."

"What? How? I never take it off." Thalia speechlessly gasped out clasping a bracelet around her wrist.

"Nico, this was in the music room." She handed Nico a silver chain which had fourteen charms, all of which were similar to those around her wrist except the fourteenth charm.

"I've been looking for this for ages. Thanks Light."

"Uhuh." She said absentmindedly, "Now I'm going to tend to dinner. I haven't eaten since lunch which for me is like days ago."

"That must be horrible!" Apollo exclaimed.

"Yes. Yes it is. Now please excuse me."

"Is she always that absentminded?" Hera asked.

"No. She's usually more cheery and jumpy." Percy said.

"It's probably because she hasn't eaten yet. She hates having an empty stomach." Nico said.

"Yeah. I wonder what she's cooking…" Thalia mused.

"Thalia," Lady Artemis chided, "Instead of wondering why don't you help her?"

"I tried doing that once but Light kicked me out of the kitchen."

"Where's Nico?" Perseus wondered.

"Probably in the kitchen." Percy answered.

They all walked to the kitchen

~*line*break*~

"Hi." Apollo greeted.

"Evening Apollo." Nico and Light greeted. Light was cooking fried rice and Nico was breaking the eggs.

"So, you're a sorceress."

"Yup."

"Do you know anything of divination? Seeing the future and things like that."

"Unfortunately. Why? AH! Nico! The eggshells are going in the bowl! Save the eggs!"

"Sorry." Nico said.

"So what was that again Apollo?"

"Oh… Nothing much… Anything I can do to help?"

Light looked around the kitchen. She saw some mushrooms. "Oh. Here, dice these."

She gave Apollo the mushrooms, a dicing board and a knife. He looked like he didn't know what to do. He sliced of a tiny piece of the mushroom.

~*line*break*~

The gods and demigods went into the kitchen. They were greeted by the strange sight of Apollo attempting to dice a mushroom, Light looking absolutely horrified and Nico laughing like there was no tomorrow, the eggs he was cooking forgotten.

"What are you doing?" Light asked in horror.

"Dicing the mushroom."

"Uncle 'Pollo, that isn't dicing. It is the most horrible slicing I have ever seen in my life."

"Really?"

"Yes. Even Nico's laughing and the only things he knows how to cook properly are eggs."

Nico stopped laughing. He muttered, "Just because it's true doesn't mean you have to say it aloud like that."

"Oh." Apollo muttered.

Light took the knife from Apollo and said, "This is how you dice a mushroom."

She started dicing the mushroom and she was really quick at doing so. She finished dicing the said mushroom in half the time Apollo would have spent nervously slicing of a tiny piece of it. She threw the knife on the board, where it stuck, and told Apollo to continue dicing. That was when she noticed the gods and demigods.

"Wait a while. We just need to wait for the eggs to cook. Why don't you all take a seat first?"

The gods and demigods took a seat, except for Hermes who took pity on his brother and decided to help him. He was as horrible at dicing as Apollo. Finally, Artemis, annoyed at her brothers' umm… lack of knowledge in the art of dicing, took the knife away from them and diced them much faster than even Light did.

Light offered her thanks and fried the mushrooms for a few seconds before mixing them in her fried rice. When Nico was done cooking the eggs, she wrapped up a sufficient amount of rice in each egg. One for each person.

They all ate the fried rice and to their surprise it tasted delicious. After the first bite Thalia said, "My gods. Light, do you ever make something that doesn't taste good?"

"I once made an orange cake which tasted worse than cardboard."

Everyone laughed.

"I'm not kidding. That did happen."

That caused an awkward silence to hang over the table.

"So… Where are we in the book?"

"Percy saw the fates cut an electric blue string." Thalia said, glaring at her cousin.

"He pushed Nancy Bobo- whatever her name was into a fountain. Or rather he made the water grab her." Nico said.

"Ares said we shouldn't hit girls." Percy said.

"Apollo is not as childish as he is in the future."

"Hermes is still the same."

"No one wants to kill me yet."

"And…."

Light couldn't really understand what they said next because they said it all at the same time. A few seconds passed before she snapped. "WOULD YOU AT LEAST MIND TAKING TURNS! I can't exactly understand you here."

"Sorry." The super cousins apologized, they started once again recounting what has happened so far. 30 seconds later they were all speaking at the same time again.

Light glared at them and crossed her arms over her chest, "This time I'm not even going to bother stopping them."

She turned instead towards the four past demigods and said, "From what I was told, you'd be Heracles, Perseus, Orion and Theseus."

They nodded, shocked at her accurate guessing. "That wasn't guessing really. Great grandma Rhea told me what Heracles, Theseus and Perseus looked like and I've met Orion once when he was teaching Nico archery. It was your ghost though."

Their faces still showed shock. Light laughed happily and shook her head. What could she have expected? She just told them she met one of them long after they were dead. That was kinda weird.

"LIGHT!" the super cousins yelled when they finally realized she wasn't listening.

"What?" Light asked with fake innocence.

"You weren't listening to us." Nico said.

"Like you would listen to Night, Bright and I if we rambled on about three different things at the same time."

"Good point." Thalia admitted.

Light smiled. She loves her family even if most of the members of the family she sees in her head aren't even related to her.

Here, in the past, she'll be able to add to that list of family members. Like the past heroes. They seem quite decent. Thalia obviously doesn't like Heracles though. Neither does Percy although he doesn't quite openly expresses it like Thalia does. Perhaps she could even start anew with the gods and goddesses. She knew the gods and demigods would have their family senses triggered by the books, but they might need a bridge. She could help build that bridge. She might have to tell them the extent of her sorcery soon, but right now she can't afford to think about that, not right now, just someday soon.

Light: Please answer the question in the above AN.


	5. Chapter 4 The Truth About Grover

Light: For everyone who read the AN in the last chapter, you would know I'm in a bit of a pinch. Just read the AN below. I don't own PJO. Enjoy.

Chapter 4 The Truth about Grover

"So… Who's reading next?" Light asked from her new seat -excuse me- perch on the arm rest of the cushion, Nico and the rest were sitting on.

"We don't really know…" Thalia said, "We just go with whoever wants to read."

"Who have read?"

"Nico read first but then I took it from him because he was being silly, then Theseus read."

"Hmm… So any volunteers?"

"I want to read." Apollo said, raising his hand.

Light looked at the Apollo with a shocked face, "You? Read? Future Apollo and Hermes might faint if I tell them that. Did anyone get that on video? I know I did."

Light held up a silver and blue video camera disguised as an innocent yellow and gold book.

"Shut up." Apollo grumbled.

Light smiled cheekily as she took the book from Theseus and threw it at Apollo, "Heads up."

Apollo caught it and read, "**Chapter 3 Grover unexpectedly loses his pants.**"

"I do not want to know what happened to make him do that." Perseus commented.

Percy nodded his head in a manner that could be called sympathetic and said, "You're right. You don't want to know."

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Knew it." Thalia said.

"Why am I not surprised?" Hermes said, sarcastically.

**I know, I know. It was rude. **

"Good." Hera said, "You should at least know that."

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"I am so going to make him regret that he ever regretted that."

No one decided to comment on Thalia's strange comment.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, **

"Didn't need to know that." Nico said clamping his hands over his ears playfully.

**so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

"**East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

"You don't live there." Nico pointed out.

"Again this was five years ago."

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"She makes great blue cookies." Nico commented.

"She tells great stories." Thalia said.

"I like her blue waffles." Light complemented.

"She's the best mom ever!" Percy cheered.

The gods smiled. Percy's mother seemed great, but why are the waffles and cookies blue?

**Her name is Sally ****Jackson and**** she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. **

"I've always wondered why that is… I mean, take my mother for example, papa describes her as fair, funny, kind, honest to a fault and just great in general, but she died when I was one. She was barely twenty-three then." Light said, "Then, there's Percy and his never ending bad luck and Nico having a hard time getting accepted at camp and Thalia's story and Aunt Sal and… I'll stop now."

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, **

"What's a plane?" Theseus asked.

"A fast way of transportation by air." Nico answered.

**and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, **

"She wants to write stories?" Athena asked.

"Yes. One of her favourite stories to tell us are the ones that she will one day write about." Thalia said.

**so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"How horrible for her?!" Athena exclaimed, "I'm going to bless her and her talents! Even if she's Poseidon's lover! How does someone like her fall for a-a Kelp Head like him anyway?"

"Hey!" Thalia pouted, "That's my nickname for Percy, which everyone else also enjoys using."

"You nickname my half-brother here Kelp Head." Theseus said.

"Yup." Light said, "And also Kelp-for-Brains, Barnacle Brain and Seaweed Brain, though only one person uses that."

"Hey!" Nico protested, "You forgot Aqua Man!"

"We agreed that wasn't valid," the girls chorused.

"Only because you gagged me and tied me up on a chair after making sure I couldn't use my powers." Nico pouted.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"HIT THE DECK!" Apollo yelled when he realized what he read.

The gods and goddesses ducked under their chairs and activated 'Protect from Squealing Aphrodite' mode. The future demigods knew what was going to happen and clamped their hands over their ears. Orion ducked under the sofa, that place was surprisingly sound proof and he does hang with the hunters so he should at least understand something that easy. However the other three demigods weren't as lucky.

When Aphrodite started her squeal attack, Theseus, Heracles and Perseus received the full blow of it. They might be deaf for a little while after that.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no ****pictures****.**

"Of course not." Heracles scoffed.

"Again I was twelve."

**See, they weren't married. **

No one decided to comment because Percy was 'innocently' playing with a large water ball.

**She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"She's good." Hermes said, "She's lying but not lying. Telling the truth but at the same time not."

"Okay we get it!" Artemis yelled, "She's hiding the truth."

"But I know every nook and cranny of the ocean…" Poseidon said.

Everyone ignored him.

**She worked ****odd jobs****, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Good Percy." Theseus teased, "The first step to being healed is admitting something."

Percy pouted.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. ****When I was**** young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

The goddesses looked disgusted. The gods stared at the book in disbelief that a person could smell that bad. The demigods looked a bit green and Poseidon who noticed waved his hand to summon eight buckets. The demigods looked around the room confused and Poseidon winked at them.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along … well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be ****home from work****. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

Light effectively used the bucket Poseidon gave her by throwing up in it.

"Sorry," she apologized, "but if I'm reading books, I have a weak stomach. My imagination is strong."

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

"**Where's my mom?"**

"Unn… Aunt Sally wa doko?" Light asked slipping into Japanese, her first language.

"She just asked the same thing Percy did." Nico informed the confused past people.

"**Working," he said. "You got any ****cash****?"**

"He asked you for money?" Athena asked in disbelief.

"Couldn't he at least greet you first?!" Poseidon said.

"What a horrible person that-that ominous hole he calls a home is the worst place ever!? It's worse than a pig sty! I bet that hole doesn't even have a fire to make it homier!" Hestia yelled. It probably should be told that Hestia truly hated pigs from the bottom of her heart. The gods were a bit shocked at their gentle sister's outburst.

"He doesn't." Percy agreed, a bit scared, Hestia was the kindest goddess he knew.

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

"That's good." Theseus agreed, the gods were shocked. Didn't Theseus like his brother? "Because if he did say that Percy here might have died of shock and we wouldn't want that."

The son of Poseidon had a point.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

The goddesses began to look green and the gods put on the most disgusted faces they had in their arsenal. Light once again put her bucket to use. Thalia followed her lead.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on ****cigars**** that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

The gods would have had their own reactions if they weren't worried about the intense reactions of the demigods.

Nico was suddenly surrounded by a black aura and skeleton warriors popped up around him. Thalia instead was surrounded by lightning which came from grey clouds turning above her head. Orion jumped away and stood next to the other couch, unconsciously summoning water arrows he froze into ice. Theseus's fingers tightened around his scrolls so hard he nearly crushed them, he also unconsciously made it rain slightly around himself. Perseus held a growing lightning bolt in his hands. Percy sat next to Thalia; Light summoned a force field around him to keep the lightning out. Among the demigods, she seemed calmest, until you saw her eyes which were changing colours, green to blue to black to silver to red and it stayed red. If the future demigods noticed her changing eye colours they would have calmed her down but the only one who would've been able to calm her down was Percy who was biting his lip at the reminder of his former stepfather. He slapped himself to calm himself down. _Remember what happened. Medusa's head did the job for me. Calm down Percy!_ He yelled to himself.

He looked beside him and noticed Light's red eyes. Uh Oh. Red. What colour is red again? Light said red was… Evil and chaos! Oh no! Even now, he could see the reddish aura of destruction surrounding her. Percy banged on the sides of the force field.

"THALIA! NICO! STOP WORRYING ABOUT THAT HORRIBLE CREATURE FOR A WHILE! LIGHT'S POWERS ARE INCREASING TO A HORRIBLE EXTENT HERE!" he yelled. They didn't hear him. With dawning horror, Percy realized that Light accidentally made her force field sound-proof.

Percy slammed jet after jet of water at the force field and the gods wondered why Percy was acting like a maniac inside a force field. Artemis was the first to realize what had happened. For some reason, as the gods were staring at Percy, her gaze was torn away to the sorceress next to him.

What she saw surprised her. Light had a red Ares-y aura surrounding her and from the parts of the aura touching the floor, there were cracks. _Cracks. _On a pure white marble floor. How was that even possible when she wasn't even making the slightest movement?

Artemis gasped as she remembered that Hecate once told her that sorcerers who aren't fully able to control their powers are more dangerous than a rampaging child of the big three. That was really bad. Artemis turned into the normal height of other twelve year olds and walked quickly towards Light before doing the first thing that came to her mind that could ever possibly calm down the sorceress.

She slapped her.

Hard.

The sound of the sharp slap resounded through the hall like a scream from a horror movie. It was loud enough to shock the previously furious demigods from their past state. Everyone in the room stared at the goddess and sorceress in disbelief.

Much to everyone's surprise, Light didn't lose her temper. Instead, her face registered shock for a split second before it changed into a look of realization. She brought her hands up to her face before sharply hitting each cheek. Artemis flinched. That cheek she slapped must really hurt by now. Light then pinched her cheeks and pulled them.

She painted a radiant smile everyone could easily see through on her face. It was however convincing. "Thank you Lady Artemis. I really needed that. I would have probably allowed my powers to grow all crazy and out of control otherwise and as everyone should probably know, a sorceress who isn't fully aware of how to control her powers, or her emotions, is at least three times as dangerous as a rampaging child of the big three."

Most of the gods and demigods paled at the newly acquired information and Apollo and Hermes actually fainted at the thought of such destructive power.

Light pulled back her super innocent façade and asked, "So who's going to read?"

Artemis cracked a wry smile as she picked up the book from her fallen twin (that came out wrong… oh well) and read. She was glad that the maiden she slapped wasn't angry.

"**I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

Aphrodite finally consented to use the bucket Poseidon summoned before.

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

A piece of the puzzle clicked in Athena's brain as she realized why Sally married this monster.

"**You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

"_He has a brain to use Maths!"_ Nico gasped out dramatically.

"_Why would I give such a creature a brain!?" _Athena called out just as dramatically.

Light: Done. That's all I have and I'm not going to make them read ever again for fear of getting reported again, instead I am going to make a series of one shots about the things they do when they are/aren't reading like that super long sorceress part up there. I haven't finished the next one shot but I'll give you all a preview. Sorry if you are disappointed. I'll try to increase the humor to make up for it.

"_Umm… Well… I might just be one of the strongest sorcerers currently alive in the world in our time. Right next to Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate." _

"_You may do whatever you like while we are working."_

"_We are so~~~ dead."_

"_A quest for only girls, so that means you and Thalia."_

"_We're doomed."_

Light: I have decided that it would be too weird to make a series of oneshots so here you go. I'm continueing my story. YAY!

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"He seems a bit nicer than the rest of the evil mutated pig hybrids." Hestia noted.

Nobody cared to ask where she got the idea to calling Gabe and his poker buddies evil mutated pig hybrids. It suits them anyway.

"**Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Forget I ever said or thought anything. The evil mutated pig hybrids should rot in Tartarus." Hestia muttered.

"That can be arranged." Hades agreed.

"**Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"I do too." Hestia admitted.

"Well then, he won't." Dionysus said. Hestia smiled. It wasn't like her to do things like this but she knew that all the Olympians will do anything for her. In emergencies like these, you just have to use what you can.

"**Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"Brain boy?" Orion snorted, "We wish."

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." **

"Like he would actually use it to learn." Athena said at the same time Theseus said, "Yeah right."

**He didn't study anything in there except old****car magazines****, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

…

"Percy." Perseus said.

"Yes?"

"I don't think any of us understood what you said there."

Percy shrugged, "Future stuff. Hey Light!"

"What?"

"What are you doing?"

"Reading Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer." Light said with a look on her face that said, 'Well duh. Are you blind?'

"Why would you read a book when you're reading a book?" Nico asked.

"The book you disguised your recorder thingamajig is a real one?" Theseus asked.

"I just want to know what happens to Artemis. I actually liked pairing him with Minerva but it seems like that isn't going to happen and yes my book is real. I get bored easily."

**I dropped my suitcase on****the bed****. Home sweet home.**

"I sense a boatload of sarcasm there." Apollo said, waking up.

"A boatload?" Artemis asked, "Really?"

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"That's horrible." Hera deadpanned.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone-something-was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. **

"Mine too!" Theseus said.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. **

Theseus looked at Percy questioningly. "Future thick blanket." Percy answered.

**She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. **

"Aunt Sally is just great that way…" Light daydreamed, snapping out of her book.

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"She's really patient. Even I would be yelling and screaming if I was in her position." Hestia said. The gods stared. Hestia. The kindest goddess who never ever loses her temper. Screaming and yelling? She must really hate Gabe.

"**Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

"Who doesn't?" Hermes asked, finally conscious. Everyone, except Apollo who was still out, stared at him.

"Oh right. Gods. Immortal. Don't age. I can be so stupid sometimes." Hermes muttered.

"When aren't you?" Artemis asked.

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the****candy shop****in Grand Central. **

Theseus spoke, "We know chocolate but what is licorice?"

"It's the best candy ever!" surprisingly Thalia yelled out, "It's so stringy and colourful and delicious!"

Artemis nearly had stroke. First it was Apollo and his annoyingness in general, then all of the Olympians and their argumentative nature, then Orion with his peanut butter sandwiches and now it's Thalia, her future lieutenant with this _licorice _thing. Is something wrong with her family?

**She'd brought me a huge bag of "free****samples****," the way she always did when I came home.**

"PERCY!" Nico whined, "You get free candy! That's not fair~~~~~"

**We sat together on the edge of****the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to****care about****that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"Your mom reminds me of mine..." Theseus admitted.

"Mine too..." Perseus said going into La La Land.

"Who am I to say any differently?" Heracles agreed, "Mother is amazing."

"Yes. Your mothers are good mothers." Hera grudgingly agreed. That was no reason for her husband to cheat on her.

Orion, Nico and Thalia were secretly sorta jealous of the four demigods. Nico and Thalia weren't really jealous for long since they have new families now, and Sally was more or less their mother now. Orion was a teensy bit jealous still. He didn't even know his mother. (A/N: Correct me on this one if I'm wrong.)

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

"Then tell her that." Artemis mumbled, "_Boys._"

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

"Can we kill him now?" Nico begged, "We have Light. She could open up a portal to the future."

"Sorry Ghost King, we're not going anyway. You just don't mess with the Fates. Besides, I didn't send us here. It's impossible for me to send us back without permission." Light said, breaking all of Nico's hopes and dreams.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

Everyone looked at Poseidon.

"What?"

"You're not married yet right?" Hera asked.

"No but-"

"Good. We'll wait a few more millennia, then you can marry Sally." Athena said.

"But-"

"You can't do that!" Aphrodite protested, "Poseidon is courting Amphitrite!"

"You are?" Dionysus asked stupidly. Poseidon turned red.

"He is." Hermes confirmed.

"Why's Apollo so quiet. He can't still be unconscious." Light pointed out.

"He's asleep." Artemis said, "He always sleep for a couple of hours after he loses consciousness."

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum …**

"**What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

"Yes." Percy admitted.

"**No, Mom."**

**I felt bad lying. **

"You should." Hera fumed.

**I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"She's clear sighted." Thalia said, "Nico, check Percy's brain."

Nico looked at Thalia in disbelief, "Isn't it already permanently ruined?"

"Good point Death Breath. Good point."

Percy pouted.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

Perseus' jaw looked like it was unhinged. "SERIOUSLY! MOTHER ALWAYS PESTERS ME ON DETAILS!"

"**I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

"**Three nights-same cabin."**

"**When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Or did he gamble it all away?" Hestia sneered. Everyone blinked. There was definitely something wrong here. Perhaps the evil mutant pig hybrid should be killed when he was a baby... That might fix Hestia's sanity.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for **

**Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

"I probably would just attack him or something anyway." Nico admitted.

"So would I," Thalia, Heracles, Perseus, Theseus and Light agreed.

"**I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

"Of course she was you disgusting creature that is worse than a monster." Hestia yelled. The gods definitely have to kill this thing.

"**I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He better." Poseidon growled, "No evil mutant pig hybrid is keeping any of _my _children away from the beach."

"**Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel **

"That's a misnomer." Light pointed out, "Isn't Gabriel supposed to be the name of an angel or something."

Thalia threw up at the thought of Gabe in a cupid costume. Eww... Light should never have brought that up.

**won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"A creature like him doesn't deserve such a tasty sounding bribe." Hermes said.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip … it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"Is he saying that Sally is going to have limited money for clothes?!" Aphrodite screeched, "No lady should ever go through something like that!"

"Do you want to join us in planning the evil mutated pig hybrid's demise?" Hestia asked innocently. She was sitting next to Hades.

"YES!" Aphrodite yelled.

"We want to join!" Thalia and Nico enthusiastically yelled.

"**Yes, honey," my mother said.**

"**And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

"**We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip … And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"GO AHEAD AND DO IT!" Ares yelled, surprisingly everyone else agreed. Even Apollo who just woke up and had no idea about what was going on.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

"Aww..." Everyone pouted. It was pretty much obvious that Percy would do anything for his mom.

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

"**I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"Is he stupid or something?" Demeter scowled, "Even Baby Apollo should be able to detect sarcasm there."

"He doesn't have a brain remember." Athena reminded.

"**Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

Everyone's jaws fell to the floor.

**He went back to his game.**

"**Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about… whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

"Yes!" Light cheered. "Thalia and I won't puke anymore!"

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.**

"What's a 78 Camaro?" Athena asked.

"It's a car, the future version of a car." Thalia answered.

"**Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"You have a licence?" Nico asked.

"I haven't had time to take the test yet." Percy said.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

"You could have summoned the seagull you know." Thalia pointed out.

"He didn't know that and back then I had no idea I could do that."

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. **

"I knew the evil mutated pig hybrid was pure evil." Guess who said that. Hestia? Who else?

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

"Good." Hephaestus pointed out.

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, **

Athena shivered. What a nightmare.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

The demigods snorted. Like that would matter to a son of Poseidon.

**I loved the place.**

See?

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

'Protect from squealing Aphrodite' mode was once again initiated and this time around, not a single person needed any warning.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

Aphrodite squealed quietly. "Poseidon, you should marry Sally!"

"B-but Amphitrite already accepted my proposal..."

The gods couldn't believe their ears. The demigods... Well can I just say awkwa~~rd..

No congratulations were said because Aphrodite was crying from the loss of Possally. Whatever that is...

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"There is much too many blues in that sentence." Orion pointed out, "I like green better."

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"That would be best." Perseus said, "It should have been red."

"I hate red." Light volunteered.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. **

"What about blueberries?" Light asked.

"Gabe doesn't have a brain." That was Athena again.

**They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. **

"Which tastes awesome!" Nico cheered.

**She mixed blueberry smoothies. **

"Love those." Thalia said.

**She bought blue-corn tortilla chips **

"I never knew they existed before I met my dear cousin here." Light said.

**and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano**

"What a nightmare! No one would want to call themselves ugly except that creature." Aphrodite just said something smart. Ugliano does sound like ugly.

**-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"Since when is trying to make enemies out of all the gods you meet a streak?" Nico asked.

"Ask Thalia. Annabeth says that we are alike."

"Percy, we don't have rebellious streaks. We have obedient ones."

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, **

"She always does." Thalia reminisced.

**when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk-my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

"Me too!" Theseus and Perseus agreed.

"**He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"You know... Thinking about it Percy, Theseus and Orion look like mini clones of Grandpa 'Sidon." Light said.

"Hey. You're right." Apollo agreed.

"You mean you didn't notice?" The goddesses asked.

The gods and demigods blushed and shook their heads.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"**How old was I?" I asked. "I mean … when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

"**But… he knew me as a baby."**

"**No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember … something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"Future Grandpa 'Sidon said that he visited when you were two." Light told him, "I asked."

"You broke the ancient rules?" Zeus asked in disbelief.

Poseidon stared, "You never realised? I visit all my children!"

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me …**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"**Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

"**I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think … I think we'll have to do something."**

"**Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"Good."

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said-that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

"**Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Weird is good." Light pointed out.

"**You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

"**Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me-all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"I probably sent him there to make sure no monster attacked Percy." Poseidon said in response to the questioning glances.

**Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

Everyone looked at Heracles. "What? It's not like I'm the only person in the world who can do that."

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into **

**dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"**I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy-the place your father wanted to send you. And I just… I just can't stand to do it."**

"**My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

"**Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"WHICH IS THE COOLEST CAMP EVER! My twin agrees with me." Light yelled out.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"**I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

"**For good? But if it's only a summer camp …"**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

"Don't make your mother cry!" Hera yelled.

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"When don't you?" Thalia asked.

"In Ogigia."

"Do earth fairies live there?" Light asked.

"I have no idea what you are talking about,"

"The newest season of Winx Club. It says that earth fairies live in Ogigia,"

"Light," Nico said patting her shoulder, "STOP WATCHING THAT SHOW ABOUT FAKE FAIRIES! IT'S ACTUALLY FICTION NOT REALITY!"

"Right... I guess I'll go back to Barbie then. I heard that the Princess and the Popstar has just been released." (Note: I knew that long ago)

Thalia looked scandalised.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

No one decided to comment. Other than the earth part, the dream was obvious.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. **

"Maybe it was Uncle Tri who forgot." Light said.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

"Was it a monster?" Apollo asked.

"Why would a monster knock?" Hermes asked.

"Good point."

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't… he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"**Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

"**Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

"A lot," Nico told the book.

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

"That's your friend. That should be easy to understand." Demeter said.

"**O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be … where his legs should be …**

"WHAT!? WHAT IS IT!?" Apollo yelled.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

"You should tell her." Theseus said.

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters,**

"I did not need to know that." Thalia said.

**and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"So let me get this straight…" Orion started, "Grover is a satyr… and in the future satyrs find demigods to rescue them and bring them to some place called camp that we will find out in the next chapter…"

"Pretty much." Thalia agreed.

"Can we sleep now?" Nico asked.

"I don't think so Nico… Great uncle Zeus might want to discuss some things with us…" Light said.

"Yes. Yes I do. Light Ichinose, what is the meaning of a sorcerer is stronger than a child of the big three?" Zeus boomed.

Light: YES! I'M DONE! Oh and I'm sorry if this story gets deleted.


	6. Chapter 5 When will we read again? Part1

Chapter 5 When will we read again?

"Exactly what it says however sorcerers aren't stronger, we just have a wider range of powers. Lightning. Wind. Water. Fire. Earth. Illusion. Compared to a child of the big three we sorcerers are considerably weaker but our wider range of powers gives us a much larger advantage. That I believe is what it means for a sorcerer to be more dangerous than a demigod. That saying applies much more seriously if said sorcerer isn't able to control his emotions and goes in a sort of trance where he barely realizes anything he does. Sort of like what I did not long ago." Light answered waving her hand and muttering a short spell after each example of powers just to show them that she was not kidding.

"How 'strong' does a sorcerer have to be to defeat a demigod?"

Here, Light allowed a cheeky smirk to alight her face, "A sorcerer does not count himself by the amount of his magic. He does so by the amount of spells he knows and his imagination."

"You mean even the weakest of sorcerers can easily defeat one of our children?" Athena shrieked.

"Nope," Light said, popping her lips just to annoy the gods, "I said any sorcerer who doesn't hold themselves in the laws of all kinds of logic could do so. Which is how even the most annoying children of Hermes learnt never to mess with the children of Hecate. I bet Lou Ellen didn't even think blink when she was hypnotizing those two and making them her slaves for the full day."

"How strong are you?" Hestia asked, "It might be rather rude but after that display not long ago I'm rather curious."

"The counting of how strong a sorcerer is is quite confusing actually. Are you asking by magic, by spells and imagination or both?"

"Both would be preferable."

Light cursed. Oh why did she have to tell them this soon? Curse that Gabe Ugliano for messing up her emotions again. She almost had the more destructive ones under lock and key too…

"Umm… Well…" Light stuttered, "I might just be one of the st-strongest sorcerers currently alive in the world in our time. Right next to Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate…"

"That means you can easily kill our children with a flick of your wrist! Spells are just words you memorize and everyone has imagination!" Athena shrieked again.

"That's not it. Spells aren't just words. If they were just words every single person in this world could be a stupid sorcerer." Light's frown was evident and she didn't really care that she called herself stupid, "When you cast a spell you literally throw a chunk of your soul into that spell. Casting a spell hurts like Hades, sorry Great Uncle Hades. It's like a throwing away a part of who you are! And that's just the spell casting! To actually be able to cast a spell you have to be perfectly balanced! Your stupid luck, personality, emotions. Everything! Being a sorcerer is bloody difficult and there is not a single sorcerer in the whole entire world in the future who voluntarily became a sorcerer! Most of us only do it because of our bloodline. Some do it to save others from the torture. Some just do it because they were forced into it. And the worst part is once you cast your first spell… There's no going back. Once you cast your first spell… You're bound to your new job forever. It becomes responsibility for someone to learn as many spells as they can. Being a sorcerer is a lifelong duty. It isn't just fun and games."

Throughout her rant, Light's voice went from high to just a soft whisper and back to screams before turning into a barely audible whisper. It did the trick though. All the gods were a teensy bit too stunned to speak so Light took this opportunity to escape. "Well it was nice to talk to you. Boy, am I sleepy. Let's go to bed. Bye bye."

She dragged Nico who looked quite dead on his feet (pun intended), Percy and Thalia with her out of the halls of Olympus and slamming the giant door with a teensy bit of wind magic. A few seconds later, Light pushed the door open as hard as she could. Just enough for her to slip in and kidnap a stunned Hestia away.

"Hi Great aunt Hestia." Light said, snapping her fingers in front of Hestia's face, "We're sleepy and we don't know where our rooms are do you mind showing us?"

"Of course," Hestia answered smiling warmly. She seemed a bit on edge though.

"Great Aunt Hestia… I prefer not using my magic so there's no need to be on edge. Hmm… Just think of magic as a demigod power. It sort of is anyway. I only use it in emergencies."

"Okay then." Hestia said, her smile getting warmer (literally), "Just follow me. This way to your rooms."

Hestia led the three demigods to a humungous room. It had four beds situated at each of the four corners of the room and the paint of the walls and the decorations were different on each corner. Each corner had a single bed, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe and a lot of photo frames decorating the walls.. That was as far as their similarities went.

~*2week*break*~

Light: I know it is incomplete but I'm going overseas and I thought you deserve something to read. I'll finish it after I get back. Note: I have not proofread or edited this chapter yet. Bye everyone I'll be back in two weeks or something.

Light: I'm back! Mauritius was nice even if I don't speak French and I liked Malaysia I bought nine books and so far I have only read four. Ink death will be the fifth.

Nico: So?

Light: I can type again…

Thalia: Just continue on. Oh, and you forgot the disclaimer.

Light: Really? (Scrolls up to check) Oh yeah. You two do it.

Thalia: Hope-Hikari/Light does not own PJO.

Nico: If she does she wouldn't be dreaming of becoming an author, she would be an author.

Light: Now, TO THE STORY!

~*continue*on*~

One corner of the room was blue. Completely blue. The bed sheets were sapphire, the pillows were azure, the curtains were an electric blue, the walls were sky blue, the drawers were ocean blue, the wardrobe was blueberry blue and the photo frames were made of lapis lazuli. The walls were painted with curly waves and seahorses, seashells and fishes. All in varying shades of blue. Percy immediately claimed that corner. No one else really minded. The amount of blue in there was dizzying anyway.

Another corner was black and blue. The bed sheets were electric blue and the pillows were black. The walls were striped black and chocolate chip blue (Percy's chocolate chips anyway) and the curtains were black with blue lace designs at the bottom. The wardrobe was sky blue and the drawers were ebony black. The photo frames were either black or blue depending on where they were placed on the black and blue wall. Black frames on blue and blue frames on black. A single Green Day (how did that get in this time) poster was pasted on the wall. Thalia took that corner obviously. The other two didn't mind. Nico was already busy jumping on the soft and fluffy bed of the corner he just recently chose and Light was inspecting the pictures on the only corner left.

The corner Nico chose was a mixture of black, red and white. The bed sheets were black and the pillows were blood red, the curtains were scarlet-black, the walls were black and the chest of drawers and wardrobe were ebony. The photo frames were either crimson or white. The walls were painted with random things in white or red. There was a white skull, white hearts and clovers, red spades and diamonds. Pretty much just random designs.

The only corner left was silver and blue. The bed sheets were silver with blue designs and the pillow was the other way around. Pretty much the whole of the corner was like that. Silver with blue and blue with silver. Light looked around and smiled. How did her favourite colours get in here? The bed was full of stuffed animals.

"The corners actually change colour and decoration according to the preference of the person staying there." Hestia informed them.

"Well, that explains the pictures." Light pointed out.

"What about the pictures?" Percy asked. Light gave him a 'just look at them barnacle brain' look and he did. There were pictures of Annabeth, Chiron, Sally and Paul, the Stolls, Katie, Will, and pretty much everyone at camp. There was even a picture of Percy and Annabeth's first ever date under Thalia's pine. They were having a picnic.

"How'd these get here?" Thalia asked, taking down a picture of younger her with two year old Jason Grace. Thalia quickly placed it under her pillow when no one was looking.

"I didn't even know some of these existed. Some of these shouldn't exist." Nico pointed out staring at a family picture of the di Angelo family that looked like it was taken in front of Hades cabin, which was not built yet. The di Angelo family was made up of twelve year old Bianca, Hades, Maria, and current Nico.

"If you think about it, long for it, miss it, and/or hope for it, it will be there." Hestia informed them, "Now I should get going, have a nice sleep. I'll send someone to wake you up tomorrow."

"Thank you Lady Hestia." The four said.

"Okay." Nico said as soon as Hestia closed the door, "Am I the only one in here who isn't obsessed with blue?"

Thalia looked around and said, "Yes. You apparently are. I have some questions, and you three are going to answer them whether you want to or not."

"Okay."

"First. Light what are you doing? I'm pretty sure throwing stuffed animals around is not part of loving stuffed animals."

"I can't find them!" Light screamed, emerging from the flood of stuffed animals at her corner.

"Can't find who?" Thalia asked.

"Bunny and Berry. My pink rabbit and blue teddy bear."

"Obviously, they are still in the future." Nico pointed out.

"I've had Bunny since I was one and Berry since I was four. I've gotten attached to them."

"You sleep with them?" Percy asked.

"So? If someone wants to sleep with stuffed animals. They can sleep with stuffed animals."

"Light," Thalia said, "THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT JUST SLEEP WITHOUT THEM ALREADY!"

"Fine." Light said, picking up a purple turtle, "You'll do as a temporary replacement."

"Right, now for my second question, Percy, I thought you hated Hercules."

"I do hate him." Percy answered, "I just hide it better than you."

"Okay…" Light said, "Can we have a match one day, us four against them four. You two can dispose of Heracles quickly and Nico and I can try to hold Theseus, Perseus and Orion."

"Sounds like a plan." Nico agreed.

"We are so going to beat them." Thalia and Percy said.

"Any other questions Thals?" Nico asked.

"Not a question. Just an order for you two boys."

"Yes?"

"Nico stop jumping on your bed, and the two of you, get out."

"Wait what?" Percy asked.

"OUT. NOW!" Thalia yelled. Percy and Nico ran out of the room.

"Thalia." Light said opening her wardrobe, "There's nothing for bed."

"Oh great. I don't know about you but I am not sleeping in this."

Light looked around the room and smirked. "I don't quite think you're going to like this idea but take down your curtains."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it." Light said. She was tugging on her curtains.

"Fine…" Thalia said, taking down her curtains too, "But I don't get it."

Light opened up a drawer and took out a pair of scissors. She took Thalia's curtain and covered Thalia with it. Light cut out the top part carefully so that her head can go through it. She cut out what Thalia assumed to be the sleeves… Wait a minute…

"Light. You better not be doing what I think you are doing."

"I think I am doing what you think I am doing and I am almost done now hold still I need to sew this thing together."

"But that's going to take ages."

"_Sew and done._ There. Now for my own." Light began making a nightgown for herself out of her own curtains. "Okay. You can call the boys in now."

~*out*side*~

The past heroes were walking to their rooms, following a map that Athena gave them when Orion suddenly stopped.

"What are you two doing here?" Orion asked Nico and Percy who were trying to sleep in sleeping bags they took from the drawers just in case the girls forgot to let them in again. Percy's was turquoise and Nico's was black as night.

"Thalia kicked us out and we don't know if she's letting us back in." Percy answered.

At that moment, Thalia opened the door and said, "You can come back in now…" her words died away when she saw her cousins on the floor. "Okay. I know you trust me enough to do something like leave you two out here but Light is completely hopeless at forgetting to do so and she says that the beds are comfortable but she doesn't know about Nico's since he was abusing it earlier"

"I was not." Nico said indignantly, "I was jumping on it."

"Hate to break it to you but… that is abusing a place to sleep." Theseus pointed out.

"Agreed." Perseus said.

"Right then. Now if you two aren't going in I'm locking you two out and Light isn't going to protest since she just fell asleep." Thalia said.

The two future demigods stood up. Percy slipped out of his sleeping bag and ran inside while Nico hopped in like a weird frog caterpillar thing because he was still in his sleeping bag.

"Hera said to be in the throne room by ten." Perseus said.

"Okay." Thalia said, smiling at her half-brother and closing the door. Somehow, she could just make out the words, "She seriously hates me." Which she assumed was said by Heracles.

"Where are the curtains?" Nico asked.

"What are you wearing?" Percy asked.

Blood rushed to Thalia's cheeks and she yelled, "SHUT UP!"

The two boys laughed at their cousin.

~*next*day*~

Nico woke up to the sound of scissors snipping. He groggily looked around until he remembered the events of the day before. Nico shot straight out of bed like a cannonball from a cannon. "What time is it?" he asked.

"9.20." Light answered, "We were just going to wake you up."

She and Thalia were sitting on Thalia's bed and Light was snipping on a piece of scarlet-black fabric. Nico saw that Light was wearing an electric blue dress that looked suspiciously like Percy's curtain. Thalia was still wearing her curtain nightgown.

Wait isn't that his curtain Light was snipping on? Percy came into the room.

"Oh the toilet's empty. Nico. Your turn." Thalia said, pushing Nico into a room that was recently identified as the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, Nico was out of the bathroom because the water was unbearably cold. The first thing he saw was Light plaiting her hair, followed be Thalia in a new curtain dress helping Percy with a toga…

"Did something happen while I was gone?" Nico asked.

"Just us two trying to get Perce into a blue toga. Nothing else." Light said securing her plait with a silver ribbon that she got from who knows where. The blue ribbon she was using yesterday was on her drawers. "Oh and you're wearing one too."

Nico's face was suddenly drained of colour. "NOOO!" he yelled.

That led to a chase which resulted in Nico getting tied up with some ropes that Thalia found in her drawer. Light handed Thalia some black sheets of fabric which Thalia somehow managed to put on Nico. "There." Thalia said, satisfied, "Let's go."

Light: End of part 1.


	7. Chapter 6 When will we read again? Part2

Light: Hi. Sorry for the delay. School just started.

Nico: A little more than a week ago.

Light: *Throws a pink bunny at Nico* Shut up.

Nico: She was just too lazy to update during the holidays.

Thalia: And she hasn't updated the other story yet.

Light: Oh. I have a good reason for that one. It's called _writers block._ It's an evil disease.

Thalia: _Right…_

Light: One. Thalia, stop being sarcastic . Nico, that's my Bun… JUMPING JELLYBEANS BUNNY IS JUMPING. SHE CAN'T MOVE SHE'S A STUFFED BUNNY.

Nico: *stares at jumping bunny* I blame you for being magic.

Light: … Three. I don't own and please enjoy reading while I catch my Bunny.

~*Roll*Film*~

Chapter 6 When will we read again Part 2

"What are you two wearing?" Heracles asked (his voice was laced with disgust and curiousity) at the same time Hestia inquired, "Aren't those the curtains?"

"It's called a dress dingbat." Thalia snapped.

"Which one? The ones we're wearing or the ones I'm going to attempt to sew together?" Light asked.

"Both." Hestia said.

"Yes. They are curtains actually because I am not going to wear bed sheets and the wardrobes are filled with them. I like normal dresses, skirts, tee-shirts and jackets thank you very much." Light said.

"Light," Thalia said, "In this time, bed-togas are normal Morning."

"Do not call me Morning. And please do not greet me with 'Morning, Light' even. I have had enough of that from my family. Hey, where are all the other gods anyway?"

"They are at work." Hestia answered, "I will be going as well. The only reason I haven't gone is that I have been asked to inform you that as long as you stay in Olympus, you may do whatever you wish and you can also use whatever you want. Try not to get into trouble. Breakfast is in the room from yesterday. You are required to be back in here by five in the afternoon. Oh, I just remembered Hera gave you a list of chores to do. Here it is."

Hestia took out a long long long list of chores that trailed past her hands, when she was holding them over her head in her twenty year old form, and ended right next to Nico who was more or less one and a half metres away from her. The demigods' jaws fell to the floor… Or at least as far as they would go.

"Seriously?!" Light asked, "My siblings and I only do chores less than half that long!"

"I share all my chores with the hunters but we don't have that much!" Thalia paled.

"I've never seen such a long list!" Orion shrieked. (Yeah, I know, how _manly_ of him)

"Aaa-e-i-WAAAAAAAAH!" Theseus said, sounding like a baby who suddenly wailed after falling down.

Percy fainted as Nico 'accidentally' yelled "NOOOOOOOO! I don't want to do all those things!" in his ear.

Heracles scoffed, it's just chores. It's not like it will kill them. Monsters are so much more dangerous than _chores. _And the twelve labours he did was definitely harder. Surely his brother will agree with him.

Perseus, with a strangely late reaction, shouted, "EVIL BAD BANANAS! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FINISH THAT THING BY FIVE!?"

Everyone was shocked at Perseus' curse. I mean, of course bad bananas are evil. They are perfectly horrible.

Heracles felt like hitting his head on a stone grave repeatedly. He was proven wrong once again. Honestly, he didn't think much of Thalia, she was after all a _girl_, you can't hope for them to do anything right. **(Hate me for this, I don't care. Sometimes I feel like people long ago look down to us girls [Maybe that's just me] too much so this is the result)** But Perseus… He honestly thought Perseus wouldn't turn into an irrelevant person like Orion and Theseus but apparently he was.

Heracles took the list from Hestia, forced a smile and thanked her before he started reading through it. Hestia flashed out after making sure that everyone was prepared to shut their eyes.

"It doesn't look so bad." Heracles said. Receiving glares from everyone. (Especially Thalia and a recently revived Percy)

Light sighed and took the list away from Heracles, feeling a sudden urge to punch him and throw him from the very peak of Mount Olympus though she didn't know why. She read through her list and ruefully said, "Let's get started shall we? After breakfast, of course."

~*time*skip*10.30*~

"So let's start chores?" Percy asked timidly. Everyone nodded.

**(When will my life begin by Mandy Moore from Disney's Tangled ****underlined means I changed it slightly)**

**Ten and a half, our new ****morning line-up****  
**

**Start on the chores, ****vacuum**** 'til the floor's all clean****  
**

"Hey Light!" Nico called, "What is this thing?"

He held up a bunch of sticks, feathers and animal fur (probably from a horse) that was connected to what appears to be a branch.

"I don't know… Some kind of ancient broom, feather duster thingy?"

"Oh," Nico said, "Percy any ideas?"

"None."

"Thalia?"

"Actually, I have one. It's called, 'ASK THE ANCIENT ONES YOU FEATHER BRAINS!'"

"Oh…" the three started, "Right… Theseus?"

Theseus was a little miffed at being called an ancient one but he answered, "Really? The four of you have never seen a broother**(not real)** before?"

"A broother?"

"Yes."

Percy looked at Thalia, "That's weird."

Light brought her hands together and shut her eyes.

"I know. I mean how are we going to sweep the floor with this broother thing?" Thalia said, throwing her broother on the couch from last night.

Light muttered inaudible words under her breath in hope for a miracle.

"The way Orion is doing it?" Nico suggested, looking at Orion who was sweeping expertly with his broother.

Light smiled as her prayer was answered and she closed her fist around a handle of a metal contraption. "Or," she said, "we could use the vacuum cleaner that Lady Rhea has so kindly poofed for us from the future."

Smiles lit up on Percy and Thalia's faces but Nico found another problem. "What about the electricity?"

"Easy." Light said, "We have Thalia don't we?"

Thalia paled, "We have a sorceress don't we? This is an emergency, right?"

"Nope," Light said, "Because magic is draining. I'd be exhausted by the time we're halfway done and we haven't even done the other chores yet."

"Fine," Thalia relented, "But I'm not gonna walk," She smirked, "I'm going to sit on the vacuum."

"But just vacuuming is boring." Nico said, his tone was teasing. Challenging. And Thalia never backed down from a challenge unless it was sure to kill her.

"Oh you are on."

"Nic and I against you and Perce?" Light asked as another vacuum cleaner appeared for them to use.

Thalia agreed and electricity sparked from her hands, Light was glad to see that the new vacuum cleaner used batteries.

"What are you doing?" Theseus asked.

"Nothing important." Thalia answered as Percy said, "Ready."

"Just the chores." Light continued as Nico said "Set."

The ancient ones stared at the future ones when all four of them yelled, "GO!"

Thalia sat on the vacuum, holding the electric plug thingy and the nose or trunk of the vacuum. Percy was pushing her. Light was also pushing the vacuum but Nico was running along with her in the front, holding the nose.

As they were running around vacuuming the floor, they were yelling and taunting each other and their really really loud voices (and a bit of cursing that they managed to mix into their taunts) actually managed to scare off the past heroes (even Heracles) who jumped onto the couches as their future siblings ran around the Hall like crazy satyrs on medication.

Not so long later, the four were fighting over who won the cleaning contest, race, and shouting + taunting match. It took a whole ten minutes to get them to shut up and move on to the next chore.

**Polish and wax, do laundry and mop and shine up****  
**

"Okay." Perseus said, "Now that that's done, we can move on. Theseus and Percy, you can polish whatever. Nico and Orion can wax the floor. Thalia and I will do laundry. Light and Heracles will mop the floor. We can all shine up the place together. Whatever that means…"

"Who put you in charge?" Heracles, who would rather he was in charge, asked.

"This piece of parchment did. See, it has my name on it and it says Perseus, you are in charge."

"How do you know it doesn't mean Percy?" Nico asked.

"Oh, here on this part it says, 'That's older Perseus not mini-Perseus.' And it also has a drawing of… A mutated yellow haired, furless cat."

Light took the list from Perseus and stared at the picture for a while. "Perseus… I think that's you."

"No it obviously isn't. It could be Heracles."

"No. Heracles hair is darker than the hair of the person in the picture."

"We both have blond hair."

"His is still a darker shade. Anyway, Heracles doesn't have an imperial gold sword like the one that is drawn here."

"That's a stick."

"No it isn't."

Nico snatched the paper away from Light to stop that useless debate. He looked at it, "HOW CAN THAT EVEN BE A HUMAN?"

"It can be if you're bad at drawing." Light pointed out.

"No one could ever possibly be this horrible at drawing."

Light pouted, crossed her arms and turned away from Nico. Her tone was somehow hurt and defiant at the same time. She snapped at Nico, "Well sorry we can't all be professional artists, meanie."

"Wait what did I sa… Oh… You're still miffed about the tangerine monkey?"

"It was a trampoline jumping cosplaying superhero Orang utan."

"No… It was a tangerine monkey."

"Since when are monkeys tangerine?" Thalia asked.

"Since Light's drawing of a tangerine monster scared me half to death." Percy answered.

"It was an orang utan and if you want to know that was one of my better ones." Light pouted.

Percy and Nico, both of whom have seen the drawing, shuddered. Images of animal hybrids and monsters scarier than the ones that want to eat them filled up their heads. In an attempt to get the images out of their heads Nico said, "Well now that that's that. I wanna clean. Come on Orion let's wax the floor till it's sparkling."

"Nico's right Theseus, time to polish anything we can find." Percy said, following Nico's lead.

"Ah well whatever. I want to go away from this torture already. Let's go Perseus." Thalia said.

And so Heracles and Light were left. "It wasn't that bad…" Light said as she finally turned around and grabbed a mop, which was a piece of cloth tied to a stick. "Well then Heracles, don't just stand there. Start mopping. We'll need to work together to finish this up by five."

Heracles swore that he heard her mumble, "Even if I want to punch you so bad for no particular reason."

~*time*skip*~

"We're done!" Light yelled out of the window. Perseus dragged her head back into the room.

"Not yet, we still need to shine up the place." Perseus said.

"What does that mean actually?" Orion asked.

"I don't know but I really need a shower right now." Thalia stated, sneezing. She was sparkling from the glitter that came off when she was doing Aphrodite's laundry.

"Wow. Thalia… You're like a pixie. Oh. Oh. We should do that…" Light said, her sentence was left unfinished as she sprouted a pair of wings form her back.

"No!" Thalia yelled, "I refuse to act as Tinkerbell and have you sprinkling all this glitter over the throne room."

"Spoilsport." Light mumbled, her wings shrinking back into her back.

"But…" Theseus said, "If you think about it sparkling can also be considered like blinking shining things."

Light dawned **(Light: CHANGE THAT SENTENCE! Nico: I like that sentence. Thalia: Me too. Percy: Me three. *Light glares at the three of them.*) **

Realization was evident on everyone's faces. The future demigods looked at Thalia and the older ones looked at Perseus. They smirked. That scared the two half-siblings. When the six of them advanced (Heracles just wanted to get the job done), the two ran. Percy managed to kidnap Thalia and Theseus did the same to Perseus. Orion and Nico quickly tied the two of them up and gave them to Light and Heracles. The two of them flew all around the room, shaking Thalia and Perseus.

Finally, shining a.k.a glitterising the room was done. And Thalia did play Tinkerbell after all.

**Sweep again**

**And by then****  
****It's, like, ****eleven-eighteen**

"It says we have to sweep again." Perseus, now glitter-free, said, consulting the list.

"I don't want to vacuum again." Thalia, also glitter free, said.

"Why don't we let the ancient ones vacuum?" Nico suggested.

"Okay." Percy said, "Light. You teach them. I'm going to rest."

"Fine." Light said, dragging Orion and Theseus to the battery powered vacuum.

She handed Orion the nose (seriously what is that thing called?) and told Theseus to click the switch. He did. The vacuum turned on. Orion dropped the nose and screamed like a girly girl. "AAAAAAAAAH! IT'S ALIVE! KYAAAAH!"

The only thing Light could think about was, 'Kya? Seriously, who screams like that? What is this guy? An anime character or something?'

"Umm…" Theseus said, "Let's skip that one?"

There were echoes of "Yeah." "Definitely."

Perseus then announced that they were done.

"YAY!" The futures screamed and the past people followed with a weak "Hooray!"

**And so I'll read ****three books****  
****Or maybe ****eight**** or ****twelve**

An awkward silence occurred.

"Hey umm… I am going to read some books from Lady Athena's library." Theseus said.

"I wanna come along too!" Light yelled, "Lou said that Ancient Greece had the _best_ magic books ever!"

"I thought you didn't like magic." Heracles pointed out.

"Oh… That. I was overreacting. That was actually mostly what I felt at first I don't feel so strongly about the negatives anymore… It sorta grew on to me. I can't live without it anymore. Well, actually I could, but I wouldn't actually. It's kinda like annoying older siblings. Sometimes, you hate them, but you just can't live without them." Light admitted, "Which reminds me that I have to tell the gods I'm sorry for blowing up yesterday…" She was at the door when she raised an eyebrow and said, "Well, are you going to go to the library?"

"You and Theseus can go ahead first." Nico said, "I found a paint set. I'm going to go painting."

Light made a face and poked her tongue out at Nico. Nico poked his tongue back at her as she slammed the huge doors shut.

~*Library*Time*~

Theseus was annoyed. Light would not stop jumping. It was interesting and amusing the first five minutes, but it got annoying after that. The two were now in the extremely huge library. Theseus made a beeline for the facts section and Light hopped into the magic section. She soon came back with more than fifteen books (Not exaggerating at all), Theseus wasn't much better with over thirty books, nearly half of them were history and information on magical monsters.

Theseus walked back to the throne room. Light jumped. When they arrived, a most horrific sight greeted them. Okay, who has been drawing on the walls of Olympus?

Light dropped the precious magic books, "NICO DI ANGELO! GET YOUR SORRY BACKSIDE HERE RIGHT NOW!"

**I'll add a few new paintings****  
****To my ****drab white walls****  
**

"Hey Nico?" Percy asked after Light slammed the door, "Where are you going to draw?"

Nico looked around the room and saw the boring drab white walls of Olympus. A mischievous Cheshire cat grin that Percy was accustomed to seeing on Light and Night before they did something that they knew was wrong made its way on Nico's face.

"You're not gonna. NO! NICO! DON'T DRA… w on the walls of Olympus." Percy screamed as Nico dipped the paint brush in blue paint and started painting on the walls of Olympus, "We are so doomed."

Thalia and the other three, who wanted no part in that, retreated to their rooms, telling Percy to call them for lunch.

Percy watched in fascination as Nico drew a clear blue sky and an eagle that was twice his size (He got Percy to let him stand at his shoulders as he drew, if you were wondering). He then drew a dolphin playing in the sea, and a skeleton dancing in the underworld. An owl wearing glasses, a peacock looking cocky, a phoenix that slept near a fireplace, and lots of other animals and backgrounds. He was a natural artist.

Nico finished with a drawing of two doves and stepped back to see his masterpiece.

That was when the yell came. "NICO DI ANGELO! GET YOUR SORRY BACKSIDE HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Uh oh. Nico looked back then grabbed his older cousin and ran away. Past Light, who didn't have time to react, and past Theseus, who was admiring the paintings, and into their rooms where Thalia was sitting on her bed and doing something the two would never have imagined her doing.

"YOU CAN SEW!?"

**I'll ****yell again**** and knit and cook****  
****And basic'ly****  
****Just wonder, when will ****we read again****?**

"OF COURSE I CAN SEW!" Thalia yelled, blushing to the tips of her toes. She was so sure that they'll stay painting for a bit longer.

"SINCE WHEN CAN YOU SEW!?" Percy yelled.

"SINCE I WAS FIVE, SO SHUT UP!" Thalia yelled back. She always did like sewing and knitting things for Jason.

"I AGREE WITH THALIA! SHUT UP! SHE'S GONNA FIND US!" Nico yelled.

"SHE ALREADHY HAS! WHY ARE WE YELLING! NICO EXPLAIN THOSE PRETTY DRAWINGS ON THE WALLS OF OLYMPUS! THE GODS WILL WANT TO KILL US, BUT MAINLY YOU!" Light yelled, banging on the door from outside.

"DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!" Nico yelled, "SHE'S FURIOUS!"

"Hey Light," Theseus said, "I think they forgot to lock it. You should try turning the doorknob."

"Oh, right thanks." She turned the doorknob and dumped her stack of books on her table and turned a knob on the wall that she discovered that morning to turn all the settings of the four windows into a raging thunderstorm. "Now, explain." She said sternly. And people said she wasn't like her twin. Oh how wrong they were.

"Uh. Err… Umm… They look pretty?" Nico answered, uncertainly. Light raised a brow. She did not expect that.

She noticed Thalia. "You're better at sewing than I am, and I live with a seamstress. But I do try to stay out of her way."

"Nico?"

"Yes?"

Light wore a serious expression, "If the gods kill you, I have nothing to do with it." Her tone changed to a happier one, "Now who's up for lunch? Orion cooked for us."

**Then, after lunch, it's puzzles, and darts and baking...****  
****Papier-maché, a bit of ballet, and chess...****  
****Pottery and ventriloquy, candle-making...****  
**

Let's just say all of the heroes did things they never imagined they'd be doing in the free time they were given.

**Then I'll stretch**

Let's not explain. It was awkward. Hecate came in in the middle of their stretching session and Orion makes a cute cat. Light's looking for the counter curse in 'Animal Spells for FUN!' Orion did not find that fun.

**Maybe sketch**

"Nico," Nico stiffened. "If you're going to paint again swear on the river Styx that you agree on the terms of services. Which are if you die, it's your fault and if we die along with you, we're getting Elysium." Light said in a serious voice.

"Okay," Nico agreed, happy to start painting again.

"Hey, where's everyone else?"

"Theseus is reading. Heracles is doing who knows what and as for everyone else… Perseus dragged them on a MOUNTAIN CLIMBING ADVENTURE! His words not mine. Honest." Light answered as she continued sewing.

**Take a climb**

"NOOOOOOOOO! IT'S TO HIIIIIIIIIGH! I DON'T WANT TO CONTINUE!" Thalia whined.

"Are you sure you're my sister?" Perseus asked. Thalia shot some lightning at him. "Yup. Now I'm sure."

"It's alright Thals." Percy said, "Just don't look down."

"TOO LATE!"

Perseus climbed back down and carried Thalia on his back, all the way to Olympus.

**Sew a dress**

"I'm done." Light said, holding up the nightgown she was sewing because magic spells like _sew and done_ take up a lot of energy. It had one long sleeve, one three quarter sleeve, a hole for her feet and no hole for the head. "I forgot the head hole. Oh well. I'll cut that one out later. What do you think Nico?"

Nico looked back and said, "I don't care if people will kill me for bugging them to sew my ripped clothes but you are never laying a hand on them ever."

Light shrugged. She was never that much good at darning anyway.

**And I'll ****annoy heroes****  
****If I have time to spare**

Long story short, never disturb Theseus when he's reading, Heracles when he is sleeping and Orion when he is recovering from kitty time. Perseus, Nico, Percy, Thalia and Light discovered that the hard way. Fish can be mean, thunder is deafening and cat claws hurt. End of story.

**I'll paint the wall some more****  
****I'm sure there's room somewhere**

"Nico. I hope you're satisfied with your work." Thalia said.

"Of course he is." Light said, "These drawings are so pretty. Nice job drawing everyone's faces by the way. Right at the top too."

Perseus looked around the room. "Hey I see Heracles, Theseus, Orion and I over there."

"Annabeth, Grover, Thalia, Light, you, Night, Bright, Katie, Travis, mom, me and everyone else looks great Nic." Percy complemented, "You even did Chiron and dad and everyone else."

"Thanks." Nico said blushing. He hasn't had time to paint so much since the Lotus Hotel and that week when he was in a coma a few years ago.

**And then I'll ****eat****, and ****eat****  
****And ****eat****, and ****eat chocolates**

Perseus popped another chocolate in his mouth. "These are seriously good. Where'd you three get them again?"

Light shrugged, "YDNTK."

"Pardon?"

"You don't need to know."

"Seriously, what does that YD something K you said mean."

Light looked at Perseus like he was crazy, "I told you already. YDNTK means You Don't Need To Know."

Perseus made an 'ah' sound as he popped another chocolate in his mouth.

"But seriously," Percy asked, "Where did you get these?"

"We stole them from Hermes's secret stash." Nico said nonchalantly, biting into a chocolate.

"WE'RE BACK IT'S FIVE!" A voice yelled. It was Hermes.

"Quick eat." Thalia urged, stuffing her face with chocolates. Everyone followed her lead. The five swallowed their chocolates just as everyone came in. They put on their best 'I'm innocent. I didn't do anything wrong' faces, which made the other past three suspicious. Perseus never wore that look unless he did something wrong.

**Stuck in the same place I've always been****  
****And I'll keep won'dring****  
****And won'dring****  
****And won'dring****  
****And won'dring****  
****When will ****we read again****?**

"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY THRONE ROOM!" Hera screamed.

Nico shot his cousins a desperate look. They sighed. Light put on her best innocent smile, "I think Nico did a great job redecorating. Look. The picture of you over there looks lovely."

Thalia smiled and hugged her dad (they were in human form), "Yeah dad. I think Nico captured you're personality perfectly."

Percy laughed, "He even drew Perseus and the rest."

Perseus followed Thalia's lead by throwing an arm around Zeus' shoulder, "And those paintings of Percy, Thalia and all their other friends are wonderful."

"I think Nico's paintings give the room more personality, don't you Lady Hera?" Light continued.

Then Perseus said… Actually I'll spare you. The four of them just sounded like those annoying door to door salesmen.

Hestia laughed, "You didn't hesitate when I said you could do anything you want did you?"

"No Lady Hestia." Light admitted.

"Well, I for one love these pictures. The phoenix is stunning although I have never taken that form before." Hestia said, looking at her future nine-year old form. "I really do like them, can we keep them please brother."

"Fine, " Zeus said, "But only if Hera agrees."

"We'll keep them." Hera said.

"Thank you sister." Hestia smiled. She loves how her family would do anything for her.

Nico came out from his hiding place behind Hestia's chiton. "Thank you Lady Hestia." He whispered.

"You're welcome." Hestia smiled.

A chuckle came from Zeus's throne, "I like what you did with the room Nico. Makes it look homier."

"Mother?"

"Grandmother?"

"GREAT-GRANDMA RHEA!"

~*End*~

Light: Finally. That took days to write.

Nico: Then you shouldn't have gotten distracted reading those fanfictions or reading storybooks.

Light: Shut up. I have to start working on Babysitting problem tomorrow and just so you know it's your chapter and I am going to embarrass you but enough about that. I thank all your kind reviews and I would like to say that I am so glad you like my story. I'll try to update this one before next month and the other one by maybe a little more than next week. Now I have some questions. Which part do you like best so far? Which part did you think was funniest? Do you like Perseus's character in this chap? Is Light too Mary-sueish (Cause I'm trying to fix that)? Is it possible for a cat to eat a goat?

Thalia: Where did that last one come from?

Light: My brain. Hope you enjoyed this update. Oh and I see a few authors give their favourite song at the end of their fic and I'm wondering if I should do that too. Oh well I'll just type down my two favourites while writing this, they are 'Mary's song (Oh my my my)' and 'Story of us' both are by Taylor Swift. Have a nice day. It's 7.32 p.m. and I'm signing out. Hmm… Actually I don't know where that one came from. It was a spur of the moment thing.


	8. Chapter 8 How to Fight a Minotaur

Light: Yo!

Nico: Since when do you greet with 'yo'?

Light: Since I wanted to… So for this chapter, actually for this whole story, I will be bringing Annabeth in but the romance level will be… Very little to none.

Percy: Wait, Annabeth's coming in this chapter?

Light: Not in this one… But she will come in definitely. But this fic is mainly family not romance, since romance is not my cup of tea and I don't think it ever will be just thinking of writing it down makes me feel awkward. So… Story starts now! WAIT! Before that. Rick Riordan, myth master extraordinaire, owns PJO. I only own me,

~*Had*Me* *Hello*~

"Hello kids!" Rhea greeted, she looked young. Like a lady in her mid-twenties. Her skin was a mocha brown and her eyes kept changing colour until it changed into the colour that comforted the person who looked at her. For Percy, it was his mother's blue eyes, for Nico it was Bianca's brown ones, Jason's sky blue orbs for Thalia and so on.

Only the eldest Olympian gods saw them for what they truly were, the best way to explain them would probably be Time. They weren't clocks or sun dials, they were eyes that could see through a person's very soul. They knew everything and anything there is to know about the world. All the pain, sorrow, happiness and joy are reflected in the world from the past present and future were reflected in them. To put it simply they were Time.

She wore clothes that also reflected Time. She walked around barefoot, she wore a grey chiton with black tights and her hair was pulled back into a messy bun with a pink hairband. Her necklace was made of pure gold with an emerald gem and her bracelets were made simply out of twine and a few random charms she collected throughout Time. A stone from a cherry here, a silver heart similar to the one on Light and Nico's chains there but the most beautiful charm was definitely the small spark from the north star that was tied in the very middle.

The eldest Olympians have offered her to become the goddess of Time time and time again but she always refused saying that she was the wife of the _titan _of time and that that was enough. But it wasn't really, Kronos was the titan of time, not Time. Kronos could control time slightly. Rhea had full power. Kronos could control Time slightly because Rhea granted a slight sliver of her powers to him after their marriage (which was not a happy occasion). And the eldest Olympians knew that even becoming a goddess would not be enough to reflect Rhea's control over Time. Because she was not just the wife of the titan of time. She is Time.

"How are you all?" Lady Time asked.

"We're fine mother." Zeus answered for everyone.

"In need of proper clothes though." Light put in.

Rhea looked shocked, "Didn't anyone tell you that togas and chitons are proper clothing in this Time?"

"I did!" Thalia said, for some reason she found she could trust Rhea. All of them did because everyone could trust Time. Yes, Time brings changes in life that you might not like but Time can heal almost anything. And that almost always makes up for the problems It brings.

"I know." Rhea said, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "And clothes are one of the reasons I came here today as I know the four of you obviously uncomfortable in togas and chitons or as you call them, 'bed sheets', so here you go." Rhea waved her hand and a chest of clothes was transported into the four's room. "The chest is in your room right now."

"Great-grandma Rhea…" Light started, "They aren't on my bed again are they? The last two times you transported a chest they ended up on my bed… One of them was supposed to go to Egypt, the other to Greece and they ended up in Japan."

"Well maybe you shouldn't make your bedroom and your bed in specific a place to practice your magic. Time is addicted to the excess energy that magic leaves behind, making it hard to direct larger things into any other places if I don't transport them from a place with a lot of excess magic." Rhea lectured, avoiding the question because yeah, that _might_ have been where the chest ended up but oh well…

"So anyway, the second thing is that I need to issue a quest." Rhea said quickly, noticing that Light was going to ask about the chest again. Man that girl can be annoyingly persistent at times.

"A quest?" The gods and demigods and legacy asked, perking up a bit.

"Yes, actually… So umm… The objective is something you will know when you get there… The time limit is the whole of tomorrow until reading time. I just transported the things you will need in two bags on top of the chest. Oh, and only the two girls are going to go." Rhea said stuttering a bit at times because she wasn't quite sure how to voice out the information of the quest.

"WHAT!" The boys yelled.

"Us?" Thalia asked indicating to herself and Light. Sure the kid was nice but Thalia found her annoying at times and they see the world in ways that were almost opposites. They couldn't get along on a quest for long enough to choose a place to shop at, as proven when she ditched Thalia for a bookstore when she dragged her to a Green Day shop. A bookstore of all places.

"Yes, you two."

"Do you want the world to end?" Light put out meekly, she thought the same way as Thalia did.

"Actually I believe that the world will end if we put the boys on this particular quest so you two will go and that is final. Have a fun time reading. I'll drop by again some time soon and Light I hope you didn't forget that job of yours. And nightmares about a spell backfiring and turning someone into a guinea pig really?" Rhea said, winking at Percy as she disappeared in a gust of wind.

"A job?" Thalia asked Light.

"Long story short, it's a spell I have to one day cast and if it backfires it can turn someone into a guinea pig permanently." No one noticed that Percy paled at that statement.

"How come you two get the quest?" Theseus blurted out.

"We don't know." The girls answered simultaneously.

"As Light so _tactfully _pointed out, putting the two of us on a quest is a bad idea." Thalia said.

"In short, if it is anything life changing or something… There is a _slight _chance that maybe… We're doomed." Light said cheerfully.

Percy snorted. That was very typical of Light to say something like that in that tone. And people said that she was similar to her twin, what rubbish. **(Hey, I just contradicted myself)** Nico, on the other hand dramatically announced, "We're so dead! Dead I tell ya. Dead!"

Orion bonked Nico's head with a stick he was scratching on. What? He still had the cat claws as a side effect from Hecate's spell. The other side effect was cat-like thoughts and scratching sticks are actually kinda fun. (That's the cat side speaking.)

"How do you know mother so well?" Hestia asked.

"It's a really long story but to put it simply, I had lunch with her after an incident that concerns hammers, a giant cannonball, the Labyrinth… And accidentally breaking her nose." Light confessed.

"You broke mother's nose?" Demeter asked.

"She was in the way of the hammer. It was not my fault."

"And what were you doing with the hammer?" Hephaestus asked. He liked Grandmother Rhea.

"I was using it to look for the weak part in the Labyrinth entrance that I could blast the cannonball through."

"What exactly were you doing that for?" Percy asked suddenly thinking his cousin weirder than he believed she originally was.

"The stupid door didn't recognize me as a demigod and I was getting desperate so I was tapping on the door with papa's lucky always-fix-things hammer that he lent me when the door suddenly opened and my hammer collided with great-grandma's nose and broke it. In the end I had to turn the cannonball back into a ping pong ball and great-grandma told me what I wanted to know about the Labyrinth and I didn't need to go and look for answers by myself." Light announced, "Oh, and I was so sure that it was a long story…"

"Umm…" Hades said after a really awkward silence in which Light went out of the throne room to get a pot of tea with sugar. Seriously? They allowed that? What were they thinking to let her stock up on her daily dose of crazy? "Let's read?"

"Yeah.", "Good idea." And "Is that kid for real?" were some of the responses to Hades' question.

~*Who*Says*~

"I'll read." Hades volunteered, taking the book and flipping it to "**Chapter 4 My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting."**

Hades glared at everyone so that they wouldn't comment.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the windshield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

"That sounds dangerous." Perseus said.

"It is." Percy agreed, "We could have died."

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. **

"What the hay are those?" Light asked from her newly claimed perch on a window. Everyone jumped. What did this girl do to get in there shadow travel?

"Actually Percy, I walked in. The door was open." Light answered. Wait, was he…

"Yes Percy you are speaking aloud." Oh… He must have sounded stupid…

"Percy, you still sound stupid…"

…

"I was speaking aloud again?"

"Hey you didn't answer my question." Light said adding eight teaspoonfuls of sugar into a single cup of tea.

Hades read on. He, for one did not want to know what shag-carpet pants are.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom… know each other?"**

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"Grover sounds like a stalker."Nico pointed out.

"Yes he actually sounds like one." Theseus agreed.

"What's a stalker?" Heracles asked. Everyone, even Apollo and Hermes, looked at him like he was loco.

"An obsessive fangirl or fanboy." Light said bluntly, "Or something like that."

Thalia face palmed. Annabeth would murder this girl just for answering like that.

"**Watching me?"**

"**Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

Thalia snorted, sounds exactly like something that Grover would say.

Apollo smirked at Hermes who did the same. Apollo burst into tears. Artemis was startled, "What is wrong brother?"

"H-He-Hermes doesn't like me anymore!" Apollo wailed, "He said that h-his new b-be-best fri-end was Uncle Hades!"

"What the-" Hades started.

"Dude, just 'cause I'm not your best friend anymore doesn't mean I'm not your friend." Hermes cut in.

"YES IT –hiccup- DOES!"

Artemis face palmed. What an obvious prank. She looked around and saw that most of the gods and demigods believed the scene her brothers were having. Thalia, Nico, Percy and Athena didn't and Light was pouring herself more tea, oblivious to the scene in front of her.

"**Urn … what are you, exactly?"**

"**That doesn't matter right now."**

"**It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"**

Light did a spit-take and Artemis, Thalia and Athena gaped. A donkey?

"HOW THE HADES CAN YOU NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GOAT AND A DONKEY!?"

"Hey!" Hades protested.

"Umm… I was… Panicking?" Percy asked-answered.

The other people who have made that very same mistake nodded along with him.

Thalia leaned over Nico and pinched and pulled Perseus's cheeks as hard as she could as 'punishment'. It hurts. This fact was proven by Nico protesting when Thalia did the same to him. For Orion's punishment Artemis took away his bow and arrows. For Theseus… Athena gave him a limit of five books a day, which is not enough. Percy and Heracles… Light poked Percy in the tummy until he laughed and yelled like a crazy maniac who was cracked and on medication and Heracles had a broken nose after Light diminished her strange urge to punch him. The urge was actually still there though.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

"**Goat!" he cried.**

"You heard him!" The animal lovers cheered.

Apollo leaned over to Hermes, "Does this mean I have to change my shampoo?"

"Don't worry bro," Hermes whispered back, "Because I have to change my winter togas."

The two frowned, they both whispered to each other, "How come Artemis gets to wear fur coats and kill animals?"

"**What?"**

"**I'm a goat from the waist down."**

"**You just said it didn't matter."**

"It doesn't matter if he said it didn't matter because knowing the difference between a goat and a donkey does matter. If people say things don't matter they usually matter and you should know that." Light lectured.

"Do you think she's on sugar rush yet?" Nico whispered to Percy.

"I think she's halfway there." Percy answered as he watched Light dump two whole cups of sugar into her teapot worth of tea.

"**Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

"A satyr once trampled Night because she thought he was half-horse." Light announced giggling.

"Light," Thalia said looking disturbed, "She called a centaur a donkey while she was panicking and she got lectured, not trampled. Are you okay? You do know that's your twin you're talking about right?"

Light started going off into a series of 'la la la's' which were very out of tune.

"She's on sugar rush." Percy said.

"And that matters how?" Theseus asked.

"When she's on sugar rush she goes crazy, she won't shut up, she'll give long lectures without thinking twice, she's blunt and she's much less considerate about keeping her temper or magic in control so she could and would hex you into oblivion if she wants to."

"**Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like … Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

"**Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

"**So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

"That's what you ask?" Orion asked.

"**Of course."**

"The book just answered your question for me." Percy said.

"**Then why-"**

"**The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. **

"It is." Light said, "The less you know, the better it is for you. Of course this would only apply for children because as you grow older you will eventually learn about those things one way or another. Like how my science teacher taught Night and I and the whole class about the animal, and by default human, reproduction system and I actually plugged in my earpieces and blasted a song at full volume in my ears so I couldn't hear anything."

"Umm…" Nico mumbled, "I don't get what you said just now… Humans have a reproduction system? Bianca told me that Mr. Stork delivers babies in beautifully gift-wrapped boxes a few months after two people wished for them at the giant wishing well in Wisconsin."

Thalia looked at Nico in shock and Percy with pure horror. Light was about to open her mouth when Hades started reading. The talk about the birds and bees would be better given to Nico when he was older from Hades himself instead of a fourteen year old who was hyper from sugar.

"**We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

"**Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

"What did you think? It would go away?" Heracles asked, sarcasm heavily lacing his words. Percy shot him a death glare worthy of Thanatos.

"**Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

"**Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

"**Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

"Give or take a few other immortals." Nico added. Poseidon paled.

"**Grover!"**

"**Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

"Yes. Yes she can." Light said, sitting on a chandelier above the demigod's couches.

"She did drive faster." Percy said, narrowing his eyes at his cousin. "How'd you get up there?"

"I flew."

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

"Really?" Nico asked, "How can you not have imagination? Wouldn't all your compositions suck? Wouldn't all your dreams be boring? …."

Percy wondered what was wrong with his cousin until he saw Light's empty pot of tea on the floor near Nico. Percy groaned. "We have two hyper kids here!"

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white **

**picket fences.**

"I LIKE STRAWBERRIES!" Light yelled in Heracles and Orion's ears, surprising Orion who accidentally scratched Heracles' face.

"ORION!" Heracles yelled running into the bathroom to wash the blood on his face away.

"**Where are we going?" I asked.**

"**The summer camp I told you about." **

**My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

"Then why didn't she send him there before?" Zeus asked scornfully, "She should always listen to gods."

"Aunt Sally has a rebellious streak in her and…" Thalia gagged Light so that she couldn't continue speaking. She did the same to Nico.

"Anywhere to dump them?" She asked. Some people pointed to the window, indicating that she should drop them off of Mt. Olympus, some pointed to a closet, Artemis pointed to a cage.

Thalia threw Nico and Light into the cage after tying them up with some twine she found.

"**The place you didn't want me to go."**

"**Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

"**Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

"That sounds psycho." Demeter pointed out.

"This, coming from the lady who is obsessed with rice and grain." Hades grumbled.

"Rice and grain are healthy!" Demeter argued.

"**Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about **

**to … when someone's about to die."**

"**Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

"**No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

"**You meant 'you.' As in me."**

"**I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

"That conversation had the common sense of a dead raccoon." Theseus said.

"Raccoon?" Perseus asked.

"Yes raccoon. I don't like them. They scratch and bite and…"

Poseidon stared at his son incredulously. "Theseus, do you have Raccoonphobia?"

Athena slapped Poseidon, "Raccoonphobia does not exist fool."

"And Arachnophobia does?"

"Dad, it actually does." Percy pointed out.

"Umm…" Poseidon said, "I said that aloud?"

Apollo shook his head sensibly, "Like father, like son."

"**Boys!" my mom said.**

"FINALLY!" Artemis yelled, "Someone with common sense."

"Arty doesn't sound like she has common sense." Apollo pointed out, speaking very slowly, "She is talking to a book."

Ares snickered. Sounds like the start of a good fight.

Artemis glared at Ares and in the same tone as Apollo said, "Polly is stupid for calling me Arty. Arry is stupid for waiting for Polly and I to fight. Arty will soon make Polly and Arry regret being stupid."

The demigods looked on in horror as Artemis pulled out her bow and arrows and took careful aim. Ares managed to jump in time so that the arrow hit his stomach instead of where Artemis was aiming and Apollo's final words were, "Polly is a girl's name!"

A silver arrow hit its mark. A place on Apollo where he doesn't shine. Apollo fainted from pain.

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid-a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

"**What was that?" I asked.**

"Never actually found out what 'that' was." Percy said.

"**We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

"Annie felt that way too when we were on our way there." Thalia reminisced.

"She'll kill you for calling her Annie." Percy pointed out.

Thalia shrugged, "What she doesn't know will never hurt her."

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness-the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"Obviously." Heracles snorted.

"Yeah." Orion agreed leaning onto The Cage. "GAH! I'm on the cage!"

Orion swiveled around and stared. The twine previously used to tie up the two hyper kids were now lying on the floor of the cage and the door was wide open.

"They're gone!" Orion gasped.

"And we're dead." Thalia said, later whispering to Perseus, "We should not have eaten those chocolates. They made those two extra hyper."

Perseus nodded.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner … and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

"How do you do that?" Light asked, "You can't do that. It's impossible. Unless one god crushes you while another one fries you and another one hoses you." She gasped, "Oh my gods was that what happened?"

"LIGHT!" Percy yelled. "What are you doing here?"

Light jumped up and down and answered. "I just came here. I left Nicky in the kitchen. He was being all jumpy and annoying."

The gods face palmed. _Hypocrite._

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

"**Percy!" my mom shouted.**

"**I'm okay… ."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell**

"COOL!" Nico yelled, jumping on the couch.

"See, I told you he was annoying~" Light said in a sing-song voice, swinging on the chandeliers.

"I am not even going to ask." Percy said.

**and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. **

"FATHER!" Perseus yelled, "I like this one!"

"It might not have been me!" Zeus yelled back.

**That was the only explanation. **

"That sentence proves that you are trying to kill my little brother." Orion said.

**We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. **

"WAS IT AN APPLE?!" Light asked.

"Umm… No…"

"Aww…" Light moaned frowning, "I like apples."

"**Grover!"**

"You just called your best friend a big motionless lump." Theseus said.

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

"That was sweet in a strange way." Hestia said.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

"Typical Grover." Thalia snorted.

"No Thalia," Nico reprimanded, "That is not typical Grover. Typical Grover is a Grover that is awake, he eavesdrops and stalks and plays the flutes of death and…"

Thalia covered Nico's mouth with her hand to shut him up. "He plays reed pipes not flutes of death."

Nico poked his tongue out slightly. "EEW!" Thalia yelled, "HE LICKED MY HAND! HE LICKED MY HAND!"

"**Percy," my mother said, "we have to …" Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

"Maybe it does." Aphrodite said, scrunching her nose, "Eww… That is a horrible fashion statement."

**I swallowed hard. "Who is-"**

"**Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

"You got kicked out of a car?" Theseus asked.

"I got kicked out of the library once!" Light shrieked.

"Me too!" Nico yelled back at her.

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

"**Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

"YES!" Thalia cheered, "I'm in the story! YEAH!"

Everyone looked at her like she was crazy, well _crazier_ than they were.

"**What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: **

"Oh I cannot wait for this." Thalia said. Light, up from the chandelier aimed at her with her finger gun.

**a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"Nice description cuz… OUCH! What the Hades? Light!"

"What did I not do?" Light yelled down.

"You shot a lightning bolt at me!"

"You're dad and two brothers also control lightning."

"But do they shoot sparkly silver lightning?"

"I don't know… Perseus was looking pretty sparkly during the shine up."

Thalia face palmed, aimed and fired a normal coloured lightning bolt at Light who decided that doing a triple summersault and landing perfectly unharmed on Hephaestus' shoulder was a great way to dodge.

"Uncle Hephaestus, can you put me down on the ground?" Light asked. Hephaestus did and Light ran into the cage and locked herself in.

Everyone stared. _Weirdo._

"**That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you **

**reach the door."**

"**Mom, you're coming too."**

Hera sobbed, "The demigod is s-so sweet to his mother."

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

Now, Aphrodite sobbed, "She still loves Poseidon that's so sweet."

"**No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

This time it was Artemis, "The boy is nice to the satyr."

"**Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

"I'm done sobbing, the goat just ruined the mood." Hera said, throwing her tissue out of the window.

Gasps echoed from around the room. "Hera, NO!" the gods yelled.

Artemis stopped sobbing, she was angry now, "HOW DARE YOU THROW THE RUBBISH OUTSIDE THE WINDOW!"

Light and Thalia were also furious, "HOW DARE YOU DIRTY THE ENVIRONMENT!" Thalia yelled.

"YOU DID NOT JUST LITTER!" Light followed.

Artemis and Thalia shot volleys of arrows at Hera and Light uttered a long curse and aimed it at Hera. She ended up as a five foot rabbit.

"BUNNY!" Nico yelled, hugging Hera. She probably wasn't going to litter anytime soon.

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head … was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

"Oh my gods that's the minotaur!" Theseus and Athena yelled at the same time.

All the gods paled. How did this kid survive!?

"**He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

"**But…"**

"**We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then-mad at my mother,**

"WHY?" Hera-bunny yelled.

**at Grover the goat, **

"The goat didn't do anything!" Artemis and Hermes (Pan was his son remember) defended.

**at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

"It is a bull! Run for your life man!" Apollo yelled.

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

"CUTE!" Aphrodite squealed.

"**I told you-"**

"**Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

"Good!" Hermes yelled, "Don't leave the goat behind."

Artemis nodded in agreement.

Thalia stared at the past gods. They were so weird in the past.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

"You should cut that." Demeter said.

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear-**

"NO FAIR!" Theseus yelled.

"Why? You got training I didn't." Percy pointed out.

"He hid his under part." Theseus whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, "He didn't when I fought him."

Thalia, Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis threw up, Hephaestus shrugged, Hades paled, the others turned green, Light took a cup and banged it against the metal bars of the cage she locked herself in yelling 'LALALALA! I'M NOT LISTENING!' and Nico fondled 'Ms. Bunny Hewa' who was completely blank.

**I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms**

Orion tilted his head (a dreaded unconscious habit) "What is a 'Fruit of the loom'?"

"It's a type of underwear." Thalia said, "Like that one." She pointed at a hologram that was situated an inch away from Orion's nose.

"I can see that." Orion said, jumping away from his spot at the chair. The hologram followed him. "Get it away from me!" Orion yelled.

"Light!" Percy scolded, "Stop bullying your older brother."

Light shook her head, "My dear cousin, that is not bullying. This is." She snapped her fingers and a magic invisible force picked Heracles up and hung him on the chandelier by his lion coat. "And secondly, Orion is not my older brother. He is my uncle, cousin, thingy. And also Percy…"

"Shut up!" Percy yelled at his cousin.

Light glared at him, "No, you shut up." She snapped her fingers and Percy lost his voice. When he tried to speak he opened and closed his mouth like a fish suffering from lack of oxygen.

**-which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

"Eww." Aphrodite scrunched her nose again.

"For once I agree with you sweetheart." Ares said,

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

Thalia, who a few seconds ago was turning green, face palmed. "Seriously?"

"What's a sharpener?" Heracles asked. (He jumped down earlier)

Light started at another lecture, "A sharpener is a future utensil that can be used to make pencils sharper. Pencils are things made of wood that will substitute for quills. They are made from wood. I prefer using mechanical pencils. They are made of plastic and pencil lead. Pencil leads are made out of graphite. Graphite is an allotrope of carbon. Plastic, on the other hand, is…"

The past people never found out what plastic is as Hades started reading to make sure that this girl doesn't give him a headache from all that nonsense he assumed Athena will one day drum into their heads.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"**

"**Pasiphae's son," **

"Your mother is smart boy." Athena said, "Are you sure that Poseidon is your father?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Percy answered nervously.

**my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

"_Wish I knew how much you knew. That they wanted you dead."_ Apollo sang.

"Hey," Thalia commented, "Ancient songs are good."

"Do you have a song about bunnies and unicorns and ponies?" Nico asked.

Thalia punched Nico and knocked him out.

Everyone looked at her.

"What? I have had enough of his bunny nonsense."

Hera gave her a look that said, 'I'm still here and I'm still a bunny'.

Thalia gave her a look that said, 'Do I look like I care?'

"**But he's the Min-"**

"DON'T SAY IT!" Herme yelled-warned.

"**Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

"They do actually." Athena announced.

**The pine tree**

"Me." Guess who? Thalia? Ding ding ding. We've got a winner.

**was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

"That…" Artemis snapped her fingers and made Light faint. Her constant random lectures are annoying.

"Umm… Shouldn't we get her out?" Percy asked, gesturing to the cage the fainted sorceress was in.

"Nah," Thalia responded, "She might wake up."

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only **

**about fifty feet away.**

"**Food?" Grover moaned.**

"**Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

"**His sight and hearing are terrible," **

"She's smart." Hephaestus commented.

"I already confirmed that Heph." Athena said, rolling her eyes.

**she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

"Fortunately." Heracles muttered. Perseus zapped him.

"Just because you were granted godhood eons ago doesn't mean you have to be so rude." Perseus whispered.

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

"Uh oh." Hestia giggled as everyone grinned.

**Oops.**

Everyone burst out laughing.

"**Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

"She's good." Ares complemented, "It is always good to know your opponents."

"**How do you know all this?"**

"She has been doing her homework. Unlike some people I know." Theseus said, glaring at his cousin and brother.

"I didn't exactly know I was a demigod did I?" Perseus said.

"It is not my fault that a monster attacks me before I even manage to pick up the scrolls you gave me." Orion muttered, no need to tell Theseus he picked monster-prone places to read in hopes that the scrolls will get destroyed in the 'unusual' event of a monster attack.

"**I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"No she wasn't." Percy announced.

"**Keeping me near you? But-"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

Heracles would have commented if Perseus wasn't glaring so hard at him.

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

"Is that actually possible?" Orion asked.

"No." Athena deadpanned.

"Unless you are a god, like me and her and him and her and Hermes and Arty and that guy and this person and…"

"Apollo, quiet" Artemis sighed.

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right-it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

"That is when you get ready to run." Orion informed.

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

"That works too."

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

"Bad idea." Hermes said.

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, **

"Not the mother you fool of a monster. You aim for the boy." Hera complained, still a bunny.

"Seriously mother?" Hephaestus asked.

**who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

"**Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. **

"No. No. No." Thalia chanted.

**His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck**

"Not the neck! That's where some of your important arteries and veins are!" Apollo yelled.

**as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

Thalia shrieked. That is not a good thing. That's very bad. It hurts a lot too… Thalia fingered her neck, where that dracaena nearly succeeded in strangling her years ago, back before she met Annabeth and Luke.

"**Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

"Just go Percy." Thalia whispered.

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply … gone.**

"That seems good. A flash of light is better than a corpse."

Percy looked at the god who said that. Apollo beat him to answering.

"Heph, that won't exactly comfort someone."

"**No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. New found strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. **

"SAVE THE SATYR!" Hermes screamed.

"You should at least be able to do that," Artemis agreed.

**The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

"I told you the colour red is nice. It saves lives." Orion said.

"That's what you think about?" Theseus asked in disbelief.

"How do your hunters manage with him?" Athena whispered to Artemis.

"They just think of him as a less annoying Apollo." Artemis answered.

"**Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

"**Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

"Never want to see that ever." Aphrodite commented.

"He needs more rice." Demeter said.

"Oh, and what are you going to do force feed the monsters that are out of Tartarus rice?" Hades said sarcastically.

"I think I will."

**I had an idea-a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the **

**way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

"It never does for demigods." Zeus said.

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

"The thing has a brain to think? I mean, there's a higher chance for it than for the Gabe creature but it is a very slight chance." Athena pointed out.

**Time slowed down.**

"Everyone was reminded of Rhea at this point, then Hades continued reading."

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, **

"The chances of that succeeding is very slim."

"Ares informed the demigods. Artemis turned around and asked,"

"What are you doing Apollo?"

"I'm narrating."

"Well stop. It is annoying."

**kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

"Nice." Ares complimented.

**How did I do that? **

"It was the adrenaline and ADHD." Thalia said, "At least that is what the Apollo campers think."

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

"IDIOT!" Thalia yelled, punching Percy (not that it hurts him), "OF ALL THE TREES IN THAT PLACE?! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE ME! I STILL HAVE THE BRUISE AND I DON'T THINK IT'S GOING TO GO AWAY ANYTIME SOON!"

"You still have the bruise?" Apollo and Ares asked at the same time. The other gods were surprised. The god of medicine and war don't always get along quite so well.

Thalia nodded.

"Where? Show it to us." The two demanded.

Thalia cut the dress she wore around the stomach slightly. If worse comes to worst she could always sew the dress back together anyway. What she showed the gods was a small part of the bruise. The real thing went in a ring around her waist.

"Awesome." Ares awed.

"That bruise is going to be permanent." Apollo informed her.

Thalia sighed. Great. Just great. A black and blue ring around her waist to last the rest of her immortal life. How wonderful!

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. **

"That shouldn't affect you." Theseus said.

**The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

Aphrodite, and most of the other goddesses scrunched their noses. Eww…

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

"Finally." Theseus said, throwing his arms in the air.

"That's a good thing to know for future reference." Perseus and Orion said.

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

"Boys and Thalia." Apollo said.

"What?"

"Poke out your tongues." They complied.

"Their tongues are okay. You can stop worrying now Uncle P. You too dad. I'll check the other two later."

"I think they're good." Perseus said.

"It is impossible to talk as much as Light does without a tongue and Nico licked my hand not too long ago remember?" Thalia pointed out.

Hades nodded and started reading.

"**Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. **

"I have never heard of that kind of fuel." Theseus said, "But maybe that is because fuel is not important in this time."

**I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!**

"Kid," Ares said. Percy looked at him, "You are now officially my favourite demigod who isn't my child."

Yeah, let's see how long that will last.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. **

"Ouch." Orion winced. That has happened to him once. It was not an enjoyuable experience.

**When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

"Good thing you didn't aim for the rib cage. Bones are hard to break." Apollo told Percy.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

"That is good news." Hades said, "It means your mother is alive and the monster isn't."

**The monster was gone.**

Everyone cheered.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go.**

"Boy, you are loyal but be careful of where your loyalties lie. It would cause trouble if they are in the wrong place." Artemis commented.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

Aphrodite squealed. That is so cute. Percy has a crush.

"**Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

That was when the doors of the hall of Olympus was slammed open. Enraged yells came. The demigods got out their weapons and prepared to fight. What they saw both surprised and scared them.

~*END*~

Light: *Shakes hands nonstop* Eww. Eww. Eww. Eww. Eww.

Nico: What happened?

Light: I made Ares say sweetheart. Eww. Eww. Eww. Eww. Eww.

Thalia: Well, uh… You might take note that this story is not mythologically accurate.

Light: Eww. Eww. Eww.

Percy: Yeah… So… Bye.


	9. AN and mini story

Light: … Hi?

Thalia: You don't update for ages and that's what you say? Hi? WITH A QUESTION MARK!

Light: I HAVE A GOOD REASON!

Thalia: Which is?

Light: O Levels. I'd update still every once in a blue moon if I didn't get banned from the computer except during the term holidays, this one which I spent on Babysitting Problem.

Thalia: Oh so you'll spend the next one on this story then?

Light: Yup, if I want my 8 O's and A's to be just a dream.

Thalia: So is that a yes?

Light: NOOOO! I really want those As and hopefully A*s I like stars! And A*s are good! So are As even if A*s are better…

Thalia: Then the stories?

Light: I might update Babysitting problem once in June but not this story… The chapters take me at least three days, usually five, filled with writing. My chances for high marks will decrease if I keep on with this one. Oh, and I might maybe make a drably sort of Super Sentai (My current craze) and PJO crossover during my free time, but I can't continue this one at all. I'll just destroy this story if and my O levels if I do. Sorry. I will say that if I don't update by the first week of December that means that I'm probably on a 'I think I failed my O levels' mood or I'm dead or maybe overseas.

Thalia: December?!

Light: O Levels are going to be on October/November… Once again I am really sorry but I am not giving up on this story. The first thing I'll do in December will be making Light less of a mary-sue. I hope you'll bear with me until then… I'm putting in a couple of short stories at the bottom of this AN. That way you didn't waste your time here for nothing. They'll be in dialog form though. Thank you and sorry. The words inside the ~*~ is the title of the mini story.

~*High*Pitch*~

Light: HI PERCY!

Percy: *Jumps away in shock at the pitch monster's high pitch voice*

Light: *Brings a hand up to her ear* Oh~ I never knew you could hurt your own ears by doing that…

(AN: That actually happened to me once)

~*Strawberry*Trauma*~

Miranda: Hey Katie! Have a strawberry! We just picked them.

Katie: *stares at the juicy red strawberry* Is it safe?

Miranda: Of course it is. It's really sweet.

Katie: *Picks up the strawberry and cuts it into tiny pieces before eating it*

Miranda: What are you doing?

Katie: Eating a strawberry.

Miranda: No! Why did you cut it first? You always just pop the whole thing in your mouth.

Katie: *Recalls a trip overseas with her father*

_Katie: Dad are you sure these strawberries are safe? We should have chosen the fresh ones from the farm. Those look gorgeous._

_Katie's dad: Sure they're safe just try one._

_Katie: *Bites into one and looks at the strawberry. She saw a white worm. Katie ran and spit the strawberry into a sink. She saw a bit of white worm surrounded by red strawberry* OH MY GODS I NEARLY ATE A WORM!_

Katie: Umm… Strawberries are just like spiders in terms of fear they can inflict?

Miranda: What did the Stolls do now? Don't worry! I'll get them for you Katie! STOLLS! *Runs out to murder Travis and Connor*

Katie: But they didn't do anything…

(AN: I used to have strawberry trauma until my aunt went and brought some deliciously juicy large red ones from China)

Light: That's it. I'm really sorry for disappointing you all. This story will now be in hiatus until the end of my O Level Exams.


End file.
